Channels

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas - 'Needs to get his house in order first'
Photo: AP
Palestinians fleeing Gaza violence
Photo: AP

Top US diplomat says Washington will fully support Abbas' new government

US consul general to Jerusalem says US will strive to prevent humanitarian disaster in Gaza, to resume diplomatic, economic ties with PA. Secretary Rice expected to announce removal of 15-month-year-old embargo early this week

The top American diplomat in Jerusalem said the United States will fully support the new government of moderate Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas while at the same time work to avoid a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip following Hamas' violent takeover there.

 

US Consul General Jacob Walles said on Sunday that long-stalled peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians will have to wait until Abbas' new government gets its ''house in order.''

  

Walles said Abbas's government - formed in response to Hamas' seizure of Gaza - represents both Gaza and the West Bank, even though ''it's true now that (it) does not have a great ability to influence events in Gaza.''

 

Now that Abbas has formed a government without Hamas, a 15-month-old international aid boycott imposed after Hamas won parliamentary elections will no longer apply to the West Bank.

 

''This government is going to receive the full support of the United States,'' Walles said. He said the US would re-engage ''very quickly both diplomatically and also economically.''

 

Walles said the US is ''very concerned'' about the humanitarian situation in Gaza following Hamas' takeover. On Sunday the Israeli fuel company Dor Alon - the sole provider of gasoline to Gaza - said it was cutting off fuel supplies to Gaza's gas stations.

 

Walles, who is responsible for Washington's day-to-day relations with the Palestinians, said it would be difficult to bring supplies into Gaza with Hamas in charge because ''there is no control on the Palestinian side of these crossing points.''

 

''But I think ways can be found in order to ensure that this happens,'' he said, adding ''we don't want to see the Palestinian people in Gaza suffer any more as a result of what's happened there.''

 

The United States and Israel hope that bolstering Abbas' government will help persuade Palestinians to cast their lot with Fatah over Hamas and ease progress in peace talks.

 

''We're not going to lose sight of the need to begin a process between Israel and the Palestinians to resolve the fundamental problems, but before we can do that I think we need to get the house in order first,'' Walles said.

 

Walles said the priority of the newly formed Palestinian government is ''to ensure law and order and security in the West Bank.''

 

Rice to announce embargo lifted

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is reportedly expected to formally announce the new US stance sometime early this week, a senior US official said Sunday. That announcement will coincide with a visit by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is holding high-level talks in Washington beginning Monday.

 

The White House declined comment.

 

The US move essentially would reset US policy to the days before Hamas swept legislative elections in early 2006 and upended US and international peacemaking. 

 

That move cleared the way for the United States to resume direct aid payments to the Palestinian government, something it has refused to do so long as Hamas was a part of the government and could benefit from US aid.

 

Five years ago, President George W. Bush called for a separate, independent Palestine alongside Israel. He was the first US president to back that notion so fully and publicly. But his administration has taken heavy criticism for letting the peace process drift while conditions worsened for the impoverished Palestinians.

 

''I think there was a need and a recognition to support Abbas several years ago when there was more of a chance that he could succeed as a moderate leader, and we didn't provide that kind of effort - there was not, I think, a consistent plan to do that,'' Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Sunday. ''And today, he (Abbas) finds himself overwhelmed in Gaza by Hamas.''

  

Some in the United States and in Europe have advocated a policy dubbed the ''West Bank first'' in which the West Bank would stand as an example of what a future Palestinian state could be. Critics on the other side say that leaves Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip without international aid. Europeans oppose this idea, and others worry it would leave the Gaza Strip open to funding and influence from Iran and Syria.

 


פרסום ראשון: 06.18.07, 05:15
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment