Abbas Wins Western Pledges for Aid

Jun 18, 07:27 PM

Current Headlines: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' emergency cabinet, bolstered by Western promises to resume aid, vowed yesterday to exert its authority over the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

"The government will pursue its jurisdiction over all parts of the homeland, regardless of what happened in Gaza," Abbas' Information Minister Riyad al-Malki told reporters after the new government met in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Abbas formed the new cabinet last week in the West Bank after the Hamas Islamist group's armed wing routed security forces dominated by his Fatah movement in Gaza.

It is unclear how much influence Abbas' government can have in Gaza, now a Hamas fiefdom. Gaza and the West Bank are separated by 45 km of Israeli territory.

Abbas' forces are focused on trying to prevent any spillover of the fighting from Gaza to the West Bank, where Fatah holds sway under Israeli occupation and where Hamas has threatened reprisals.

"We still do not have a clear plan," Malki said. Asked how he would enforce the law in violence-prone Gaza, Abbas' interior minister in charge of security, Abdel-Razzak Yahya, said: "I swear to God I do not know."

Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas has said he still considers a three- month-old unity coalition in which he is prime minister as the legitimate Palestinian government and accuses Abbas of participating in a US-led plot to overthrow him.

The European Union said yesterday it wants to resume direct aid to the Palestinians, but did not say when funds would be freed up.

US President George W. Bush called Abbas to extend support and Abbas told him he was ready to "open the door" to renewed peace talks, an aide to Abbas said.

The United States is set to lift a ban on direct aid to the Palestinian government formed by Abbas for the first time since an embargo imposed when Hamas rose to power in early 2006 and refused to recognize Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in New York that Israel would release frozen tax revenues to Abbas and "take perhaps more risks" in cooperating with Abbas's government.

Washington wants to accelerate talks between Olmert and Abbas on Palestinian statehood in the West Bank, while isolating Hamas economically, diplomatically and militarily in Gaza.

The Jewish state renewed full fuel supplies to Gaza after halting them a day earlier, but issued orders to block cargo shipments to the strip.

An Israeli defense official, Shlomo Dror, said Israel may airlift food if necessary to avert a humanitarian crisis for 1.5 million Palestinians living there. Key crossings between Israel and Gaza have remained largely shut for days.

Palestinians in Gaza responded to the threatened blockade by stocking up on extra food at the local grocer.

"We are neither Hamas or Fatah, so why should we be punished?," said Huda, 29, a mother of two, as she loaded up on extra milk.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who met European foreign ministers in Luxembourg to press them to keep isolating Hamas, said Israel should seize an opportunity offered by the political divisions between the West Bank and Gaza.

"We should take advantage of this split to the end," Livni said. "It differentiates between the moderates and the extremists."

Livni also said Abbas's "new government can send a message of hope" for the prospect of future peace talks.

Some European diplomats have expressed misgivings about the US- Israeli strategy and whether it could deliver a lasting solution. Others point to questions over the legal underpinnings of the cabinet Abbas set up by decree over Hamas' objections.

Agencies

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