The EU on Monday increased the pressure on the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel and renounce terrorist violence by suspending all direct aid to the new government.
Europe is the largest single donor to the Palestinian territories, providing 500 million euros (US$606 million) a year, of which just under half goes directly to the authority. Aid organizations warned that the decision to cut off assistance would simply damage people living on about US$1.8 a day and drive them further into the arms of extremists. Aid accounts for 25 percent of Palestinians' incomes.
But EU foreign ministers said aid for electricity, water, food, health and education would be channelled via agencies close to, but not controlled by, Hamas.
PHOTO: AP
Their decision to suspend aid came after the Palestinian Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razek warned that the authority's financial crisis was desperate, leaving him unable to pay 140,000 civil servants. EU ministers dismissed such talk as exaggerated. Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, said aid had been suspended while "an urgent search for other routes to ensure that public servants like teachers and doctors get paid is undertaken."
He added: "Our overwhelming concern is to make sure that ordinary people's lives are not damaged. At the same time European taxpayers would find it intolerable if they found their money used for terrorists or terrorist operations."
Hamas could resolve the problem by committing itself to non-violence, recognizing Israel and abiding by previous peace agreements with the Jewish state, he said.
So far the signals from Hamas had been contradictory, with the Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh appearing helpful while the Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar continued to talk about wiping Israel from the face of the map.
The new Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, severed all direct contacts with the Palestinians at the weekend and said Israel would freeze relations with foreign officials who met Hamas officials. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said it violated previously signed agreements and international law. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said Israel's step amounted to a "declaration of war."
Fourteen Palestinians, including two children, have been killed by Israeli attacks since Friday night
The attacks are an attempt to halt the firing of missiles from Gaza into Israel.
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS