By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Defying Israeli objections, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams met a Hamas legislator in the West Bank on Wednesday and advised Israel and the Palestinians to solve their problems using the Northern Ireland formula - through negotiations.
Visiting Ramallah, the Palestinians' West Bank administrative capital, Adams met with several Palestinian lawmakers, including Ayman Daraghmeh of Hamas. He spoke by telephone to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who is traveling in the Gulf.
At a news conference, he urged Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate a two-state solution to their conflict and said Israel must talk to the Palestinian leadership. "I think it is right that the occupation of the Palestinian territories should end and I think it's right that there should be dialogue and an end to the conflict," he said.
Israel must "understand that the strategic interest of Israel and the prosperity and the security and freedom of Israel is interlocked into them upholding the rights and the freedom and the security of the Palestinian people," he said.
Adams, whose Irish Republican Army-linked party is the major representative of Northern Ireland's Catholic minority, said ahead of his trip that he wants to help provide inspiration for parties in other conflicts, following agreement to end decades of bloody fighting in his land.