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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, last week. (AP)
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| By Associated Press March 13, 2006 |
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that during her upcoming visit to Indonesia, she'll ask the world's largest Muslim nation to reinforce the message that the Palestinians must remain committed to peace with Israel.
The call comes in the face of the refusal by the militant Islamic group Hamas, which recently won control of the Palestinian Authority, to recognize Israel's right to exist.
Meanwhile, Rice said Sunday, "We are looking at ways to even increase our humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people during this period of time."
She spoke to reporters on a flight from Santiago, Chile, to Rio, for a refueling stop en route to Jakarta, Indonesia.
While not specific, her comments suggested that the United States intends to replace money it once gave directly to the current moderate and secular Palestinian government with grants for charity work or other projects that are independent of the new government.
U.S. officials have nearly finished an extensive review of aid to the Palestinians that was intended to ensure that future aid does not flow to Hamas.
Hamas, which refuses to renounce violence and has claimed responsibility for dozens of suicide bombings against Israel, is listed as a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union.
U.S. diplomats are concerned both about the effect an aid cut would have on a poor and underemployed population, and about the perception among Muslims that the United States is cutting aid as punishment for selection of leaders it does not like.
The Palestinian Authority is effectively broke, with a monthly deficit in the tens of millions of dollars. In 2005, the first year the authority was not headed by Yasser Arafat, overseas donors contributed about $1 billion of the authority's approximately $1.9 billion.
U.S. direct aid is a small part of that - $70 million last year. Separately, it spent $225 million for humanitarian projects through the U.S. Agency for International Development last year, and gave $88 million for refugee assistance.
The authority has agreed to return the unspent portion of a $50 million grant the United States made directly to the government last year. The money was a good faith gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose moderate Fatah Party lost to the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, in January elections.
That amount may now be redirected to humanitarian projects, along with $150 million that the United States had planned to give directly to the Palestinian government this year.
Rice's visit to Indonesia will include a visit to an Islamic school and a speech on the spread of democracy in the Muslim world.
"Indonesia does have input" with the Palestinians, the secretary said. "I would ask them to influence people in the Palestinian territories that the choice has to be for peace."
Rice acknowledged popular opposition in Indonesia to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
About 5,000 Muslims rallied in front of the tightly guarded U.S. Embassy in Indonesia a week ago, demanding that American troops leave Iraq and Afghanistan and calling U.S. President George W. Bush a terrorist and colonialist.
Rice said the demonstrations prove her point about the value of democracy: "What that shows is that Indonesia is a vibrant democracy and people can protest and people can speak their minds."
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