The Swedish Foreign Ministry assured Israeli Ambassador Benny Dagan on Monday that there was absolutely no contact between Stockholm and Hamas, in accordance with European Union policy, the Hebrew-language Haaretz reported. Dagan was summoned following the newspaper's report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had complained the alleged attempts to start a dialogue with the terror organization a week and a half ago during the visit of Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, whose country takes over the presidency of the EU from Sweden in January.

Sweden has instructed its ambassador in Tel Aviv to issue the official denial to all Israeli media and has the done the same for Swedish papers. According to Hamas' representative in Lebanon, Usamah Hamdan, MPs from Sweden, the Netherlands and three other West European nations consulted with Hamas representatives over the past months.