Abbas: Economic situation worsening
Socialists' leader visits Gaza, sets to meet with Israeli prime minister later on Sunday; Abbas warns that economic situation in territories is worsening
Sunday, with talks with Abbas in Gaza City and a meeting scheduled later with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Tel Aviv.
Abbas said the Palestinians should seek to form a national unity government which would lift a political and economic ban imposed by international donors on the Palestinian Authority following Hamas' rise to power.
Abbas spoke during a joint press conference with French presidential candidate Segolene Royal.
"Any delay in forming a national unity government means a worsening in the conditions of the Palestinians, especially in the economic conditions they are living," he said.
Abbas, who had announced Thursday that talks to form a unity government with the radical Islamic group Hamas had failed, expressed hope Sunday for restarting them. The talks were aimed at ending a crippling foreign aid boycott against the Hamas-led government.
“The efforts at present have stopped, but we must preserve hope,” Abbas said. He added: “The question is not a disagreement on positions or posts, but on principle. We want a government that is able to lift the siege on the Palestinian people.”
No meetings with Hamas
Royal said a unity government “would be a substantial process toward recognizing the principles of the Quartet,” the four international players trying to promote MiddleEast peace - the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia.
Royal’s trip began Thursday in Lebanon. After a stopover in Jordan on Saturday night, she arrived in Gaza a week after a fragile truce ending five months of violence took
effect on the Gaza-Israel border.
She has not set up any meetings with Hamas representatives, her entourage said, though she had not ruled out that possibility. Royal has supported resumed aid to the Palestinians, and urged a greater European role in Middle East peacemaking.
Later she was to see Olmert as well as Foreign Minister Tzipi Lipni in Tel Aviv.
Tensions have risen between France and Israel in recent weeks over Israeli flyovers in southern Lebanon. French peacekeeping troops were seconds away from firing on
Israeli warplanes in one incident in October.
