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Palestinian PM appeals to west:
'Respect unity deal and restore aid'
MIDDLE EAST: Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
appealed on Monday to the United States and other Middle East mediators
to restore economic aid to the Palestinian Authority in response to a
Hamas-Fatah unity deal.
"The American administration should reconsider its hasty position,
which refuses to deal with the will of the Palestinian people," Haniyeh,
a Hamas leader, said in a speech.
"I say to the Quartet and to the European Union that this is the will
of the Palestinian people, and they should respect it and they should
work to end the status of siege," he said.
The Quartet of Middle East mediators - the United States, the
European Union, Russia and the United Nations - cut off direct funding
of the Palestinian Authority after Hamas came to power last year.
Hamas, an Islamist movement, has rejected the Quartet's conditions
for restoring aid: recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence and
acceptance of existing interim peace agreements.
The unity agreement Hamas signed with the long-dominant Fatah faction
in Saudi Arabia last Thursday made no explicit commitment to recognise
the Jewish state.
Earlier on Monday, Israeli officials said earlier that Israel was
considering suspending contacts with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
if the unity government did not meet the international demands.
The move could increase pressure on Abbas but hinder U.S. efforts to
revive long-stalled peace talks. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice plans a three-way summit with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert in Jerusalem on Feb. 19.
A letter from Abbas of Fatah reappointing Haniyeh as prime minister
contained a vague call to the movement to "abide by the interests of the
Palestinian people" and "respect" past agreements and international law.
Olmert told Israeli lawmakers he needed to assess where Abbas stood
following his power-sharing deal with Hamas.
"Now they are one and they are one government," Olmert said,
according to a parliamentary spokesman. "If (the new government) insists
on the same stance, Abu Mazen (Abbas) would be moving from the positions
that he had earlier."
Israeli officials said a suspension of contacts may only be temporary
and that a final decision will not be made until the unity government is
in place, a process that could take a month or longer.
Israel's response also depended on whether Abbas and the new
government secured the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
"Gilad Shalit can serve as a test," Olmert said.
Meanwhile the European Union will only resume ties with the
Palestinian government if it accepts the principles of the international
Quartet on the Middle East, including recognising Israel, EU foreign
ministers said.
"The EU stands ready to work with a legitimate Palestinian government
that adopts a platform reflecting the Quartet principles," the ministers
said in a statement agreed during a day of talks in Brussels.
Earlier EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner
said the European Union was not yet ready to resume aid to the
Palestinian government despite the unity accord signed last week in
Mecca by the Hamas and Fatah factions.
The process of forming a government "has not been completed," said
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, foreign minister of Germany, which currently
holds the rotating EU presidency.
"We have to wait for the formation of a government and its programme,"
Steinmeier told a press conference after the foreign ministers' meeting.
He did welcome the agreement between Hamas and Fatah which should
help stop the inter-Palestinian "blood bath".
Gaza, Brussels, Tuesday, Reuters, AFP |
