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Palestinian girls at a Hamas rally in Jenin, Monday. (AP)
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Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal meets Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Teheran. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners February 28, 2006 |
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| Palestinian Hamas supporters shout slogans, Jenin, Monday. (AP) |
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The EU has agreed to grant US$143 million in urgent aid for Palestinians before a government takes office led by Hamas - which the Europeans consider a terrorist outfit.
But it kept silent on what it would do once the militant organization assumes power.
Hamas members have expressed their satisfaction with the EU?s decision to transfer the funds to the Palestinians, regarding the move as ?coming to terms with the (Palestinian) election results.?
It was also reported on Tuesday that Iran would allocate $250 million to the Palestinian Authority to replace the funding withheld by Israel and the United States following Hamas' election victory.
In an interview with the London-based Dar al-Hiyat newspaper, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said that he officially approved the Iranian support for the new Hamas-led PA.
He summarized his visit to Teheran, saying "Iran has announced that it would support the new Palestinian government and the Palestinian people."
The EU aid funds were required to avoid "economic chaos," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Monday.
It was also designed to show European support for the Palestinians remains undiminished, at least until Hamas - which won the Jan. 25 Palestinian elections - assumes power.
Both the United States and the EU consider Hamas a terrorist group. Washington seeks support from Arab allies such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt for a financial boycott of Hamas as it takes control of the Palestinian parliament
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, however, found no backing for that on a tour of the region last week.
For its part, the EU is taking a wait-and-see attitude.
"We need to have some patience now" to allow for government formation talks, said EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. "Later on we'll have to decide what comes next."
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country now holds the EU presidency, said the aid will not change the EU demand that Hamas must "accept the principles of nonviolence, recognize Israel's right to exist" and existing accords that the Palestinians and Israel have reached over the years.
Officials said the emergency EU aid package designed to tide the Palestinian Authority will pay bills for two months and comprises:
-US$48 million to pay for the Authority's energy and other essential utility bills. These bills will be paid by the EU directly to the utilities, based on invoices validated by an international audit firm.
-US$76 million for health and education projects to be paid to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, which provides education, health care, social services and emergency aid for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria.
-US$21 million for salaries of Palestinian Authority workers. This money will come from US$83 million the EU paid into a World Bank trust fund in 2005, but of which only half was spent as the Palestinian Authority missed key good governance goals last year.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the EU aid package shows "Europe supports Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority."
Outgoing Palestinian Economics Minister Mazen Sonnoqrot welcomed the aid. Without it, he said, "we could not pay salaries of Palestinian Authority employees for February" nor the utility bills.
Senior Israeli government official Raanan Gissin, however, said the aid was bound to reach Hamas militants pledged to Israel's destruction, adding it would have been better had they been sent directly to humanitarian organizations. "Do it directly to the population," Gissin said. "We have to establish bypass roads to the Palestinian population that bypass a terrorist government." Gissin said Israel supports humanitarian assistance.
EU officials insisted only funds to pay Palestinian Authority workers would go to the Palestinians. The bulk - US$ 120 million - will be paid to utility companies and the UNRWA.
The United States has welcomed the decision. "It is a sign that we are all working together," said State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked to senior EU officials Sunday, the spokesman said. "We are all working together to prevent a collapse of the interim PA government and to support the Palestinian people," Ereli said.
International envoy James Wolfensohn warned Mideast mediators that the Palestinian Authority is in danger of financial collapse within two weeks, largely because Israel has stopped the flow of tens of millions of dollars to the incoming Hamas government, according to a letter The Associated Press obtained Monday.
Without the money from Israel, the Palestinian Authority will not be able to pay wages, and that could have a destablizing effect on the region, Wolfensohn wrote to the Quartet.
Wolfensohn also urged the Arab countries to support the Palestinian Authority with greater sums of money, and appealed to the World Bank to carefully consider its funding levels.
The Bush administration, which is not providing assistance to the Palestinian Authority this year, is due to announce shortly whether it will contribute to Palestinian projects.
The United States has ruled out any assistance to a Hamas-led government while the EU has kept silent on its plans.
Ereli said Rice and others in the so-called quartet - the United States, the EU, the United Nations and Russia - have clear that the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians will not be neglected whatever government they have.
AP contributed to this report.
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