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Nabil Elaraby
Photo: AP

Elaraby: Peace talks are waste of time

Arab League chief says during rare visit to Ramallah that Palestine is need of material and political support, warns Palestinians are to take statehood bid to Security Council

Top Arab officials paid a rare visit to the West Bank on Saturday to discuss a Palestinian financial crisis that President Mahmoud Abbas hopes will be eased by Arab donations.

 

Arab League Chief Nabil Elaraby and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr congratulated the Palestinians on a successful United Nations status upgrade last month, but stopped short of promising the badly-needed funds.

 

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"Palestine is in need of material and political support," Elaraby told a news conference in the Palestinians' de facto capital of Ramallah.

 

"Arab countries agreed at their Baghdad summit (in March) for an Arab safety net of $100 million dollars each month, but unfortunately none of this has been achieved yet," he said.


שר החוץ הפלסטיני אל מלכי. מימינו עמיתו המצרי, משמאלו אל-ערבי, היום ברמאללה (צילום: AFP)

Elaraby, Al-Maliki and Amr in Ramallah on Sat. (Photo: AFP)

 

Palestinian were cheered by a strong majority in the United Nations recognizing them as an "observer state" on Nov. 29 but have struggled to get Arab support to make up $100 million in shortfalls left by Israeli sanctions following the UN move.

 

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki told reporters that Abbas has updated Elaraby over the Israeli measures, including the construction planned for territories beyond the Green Line.

 

Elaraby addressed the impasse in the talks between Israel and the Palestinians, emphasizing that the two decades of talks with Israel have been "a waste of time" and that Palestinians will soon take a new statehood bid to the UN.

 

"We will return to the UN Security Council," he said. "Palestine will be cooperating with Arab and EU countries to change the equation (in the peace process) that prevailed over the past 20 years, which was a waste of time."

 

Elaraby is the first Arab League Chief to visit Ramallah, but he and other prominent Arab and Islamic leaders, including the Egyptian prime minister, met Abbas' Palestinian Hamas rivals in Gaza during their brief war with Israel last month.

 

Arab support for Gaza

Hamas, which split from the West Bank after it seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, also won a diplomatic coup by receiving Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state of Qatar, who pledged $400 million in aid for the impoverished territory in October.

 

The emir postponed a visit to Ramallah he had announced this month, disappointing West Bank officials who had hoped he would arrive bearing gifts of cash.

 

The Gaza visits broke years of diplomatic quarantine for the Islamist Hamas group, which refuses to recognize Israel or relinquish its arms, and increased the isolation of the dovish, Western-backed Ramallah government.

 

West Bank officials have watched with worry as uprisings in the Arab world divert attention from their diplomatic strategy, which has failed to achieve an independent Palestinian state.

 

Hamas militants, by contrast, have been heartened as fellow-Islamists rise to power in Egypt and elsewhere.

 

In fact, Egypt allowed building materials into Gaza via the Rafah crossing on Saturday for the first time since 2007, according to an Egyptian border official. It was part of a shipment of building materials donated by Qatar.

 

An Egyptian official said the shipment was made in consultation with Israeli officials, who were in Cairo Thursday to discuss security in the Sinai Peninsula and the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire signed by Gaza's Hamas rulers and Israel last month.



 

Abbas has accused Israel of "piracy" after it withheld customs revenues it collects on the Palestinians' behalf, citing months of utilities bills Ramallah owes Israeli companies.

 

The financial crisis has forced the Palestinian Authority to delay salary payments to West Bank employees, who have gone on strike in protest. Abbas has responded by saying he might give up power and compel Israel to take on the Palestinians' affairs.

 

Reuters and AP contributed to the report

 

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.29.12, 17:27
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