Haaretz
Adar 7,5767
France pledged Saturday to
cooperate with a coalition Palestinian government that would include the
militant Hamas party, in a key boost for Palestinian Authority Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas.
However, Abbas' European tour failed to make
headway on resuming aid for the financially crippled Palestinian
Authority.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy's promise
to work with a government including Hamas and the moderate Fatah party was
the bright spot in Abbas' four-country swing through Europe this week.
Other European leaders were more cautious, preferring to wait until the
government is formed before making any commitments.
"I encouraged
Mr. Abbas to persevere in his efforts to quickly form a national unity
government," Douste-Blazy told reporters Saturday evening as Abbas wrapped
up his trip.
"If the government is formed according to the
power-sharing deal worked out in Mecca last month," Douste-Blazy said,
France will be ready to cooperate with it. And our country will plead on
its behalf within the European Union and with other partners in the
international community.
Abbas welcomed the pledge, though it was
unclear how far France could go in supporting the Palestinians without the
backing of the rest of the EU or other members of the Quartet of Middle
East peace negotiators - the United States, the European Union, Russia and
the United Nations.
Douste-Blazy made no commitments on lifting
the aid embargo imposed on the Palestinian government. Half of the
Palestinian Authority's budget came from foreign assistance until much of
it was frozen following Hamas election victory a year ago.
Abbas
also said he would push for the release of captured Israel Defense Forces
soldier Gilad Shalit before the new government is formed. Shalit's capture
by Palestinian militants last June sparked weeks of fighting between
Palestinians and Israelis. Chirac and Douste-Blazy urged his release again
Saturday.
Speaking after a meeting with French President Jacques
Chirac earlier on Saturday, Abbas said "we cannot say there is anything
that is completely hopeless. We must continue to try to work to find a
solution. We must continue to talk to the Israelis. We are partners with
the Israelis, partners for peace."
Abbas also repeated a call for
the lifting of an international economic blockade of a new Palestinian
unity government.
Speaking after the meeting, Abbas told reporters:
"What we asked for is that the new government that will be formed not be
subjected to the same embargo to which the current government is being
subjected."
Abbas made similar statements after meeting with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, expressing optimism that the boycott would be at
least softened by the time the Quartet hold their next meeting on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Quartet of Middle East peace
negotiators, comprising the United States, European Union, Russia and the
United Nations, is split over how to deal with the planned government
between Abbas' Fatah movement and Hamas, which Washington views as a
terrorist group.
The Quartet repeated a demand on Wednesday that
any Palestinian government renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept
interim peace deals.
Though the unity government fell short of
directly meeting those demands, Western diplomats said the agreement
between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction
widened divisions within the Quartet.
The U.S. and Israel want to
continue to shun the unity government; Russia and some other European
governments favor a softer line.
Abbas said he believed Wednesday's
meeting was encouraging.
"I think the last meeting was a good
meeting. The Quartet said 'Let's wait and see.' It was not a rejection, it
was an expression of a certain hesitation," he said in the courtyard of
Chirac's Elysee Palace.
Abbas said Friday he was determined to push
the planned Palestinian unity government into complying with Western
demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by previous
Israeli-Palestinian agreements.
"We did not change our position, we
did not change our principles," Abbas told reporters after a meeting with
the European Union's chief diplomat Javier Solana in Brussels. Abbas met
Solana as part of a tour of European nations in efforts to build support
for an eventual lifting of a crippling international aid
embargo.
Abbas said that his Fatah party remained "committed to the
principles of a two-state-solution, renouncing violence and terror and
reiterating our commitment to agreements signed."
Fatah agreed to
share power with the ruling Hamas movement earlier this month despite the
militant group's continued refusal to recognize Israel.
Solana said
that the EU had to wait and see how the planned Palestinian unity
government would operate before making any decisions.
"We cannot
boycott what does not exist, the government still has not been formed,"
Solana said, but he stressed that the new administration would have to
comply with the three Quartet principles.
Solana cautioned that a
Palestinian unity government would either be "part of a solution or ... be
part of the problem."
The EU was not boycotting the Palestinian
people, Solana stressed, adding that the 27-member bloc would continue its
help and "if possible" even increase aid to the Palestinians this
year.
Earlier Friday, Abbas met with Merkel, who welcomed the
planned Palestinian coalition but said any new government must meet the
Quartet's conditions.
Merkel, whose country holds the rotating EU
presidency, said the power-sharing deal reached between Abbas' Fatah
faction and Hamas was positive because it stopped the fighting between the
two that cost some 130 lives.
"It is good that the bloodletting,
especially in Gaza, has been stopped, but there is a difficult stretch in
front of us," Merkel said after meeting with Abbas in
Berlin.
Syria-based exiled political leader of Hamas Khaled Meshal
said Friday that his faction will not budge from its position and blamed
the U.S. for the failure of the international community to lift the
financial embargo on the Palestinians.
Meshal also said that
efforts were still under way through Egypt to broker the release of
Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, abducted by pro-Hamas militants in
June.
As a father, Meshal said he understood what Shalit's father
was going through.
Speaking to reporters at the end of a three-day
visit to Cairo, Meshal criticized the Quartet's meeting this week in
Berlin for failing to lift the embargo on the Palestinians.
The
gathering searched for a way to advance the stalled Israeli-Palestinian
peace efforts amid strong misgivings about the planned unity government
between rival militant Hamas and the moderate Fatah.
Meshal blasted
Washington's stand to postpone any decisions about lifting the blockade
until the Hamas-Fatah power sharing government takes hold.
"The
postponement ... is an evidence that the American position is not
convincing," said Meshal.
Meanwhile, foreign ministers of seven
Muslim countries and the chief of the Organization of the Islamic
Conference will meet in Pakistan this weekend to prepare for an Islamic
summit aimed at ending turbulence in the Middle East.
The idea for
a summit of the Islamic countries has been championed by Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf who has long said the Palestinian conflict was
the root of terrorism and extremism.
Musharraf, whose government
does not recognize Israel but has held talks with it, has expressed gloom
about the problems besetting the region and has urged a new
initiative.
Indonesia invites Hamas and Western envoys for
talks
Indonesia has invited Hamas and Western representatives to
talks in Jakarta next month in a bid to persuade the militant group to
moderate its position and help end a crippling economic blockade of the
Palestinian government.
Indonesia has received assurances from
Syrian-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshal that he would send envoys to
Jakarta for the talks, foreign ministry spokesman Desra Percaya
said.
"We want to hear from Hamas their views on solving the
Palestinian-Israeli issue and outside parties have yet to hear directly
from them what it is that they want," Percaya told a news
conference.
He did not give an exact date for the meeting but said
it would take place before the end of March.
Percaya said despite
the formation of a Palestinian unity government, the meeting remained
relevant because issues surrounding Western demands for Hamas to renounce
violence, recognize Israel and accept interim peace deals with Israel
would not be resolved any time soon.
Indonesia, the world's most
populous Muslim country, is a strong supporter of the Palestinian struggle
for nationhood and has no diplomatic ties with Israel.
Percaya said
Indonesia had also invited "individuals" from Europe and the United States
to participate in the talks and hoped that a Western recognition of the
Palestinian unity government would ease the economic blockade. He did not
say whether the Western representatives had accepted the
invitation.
Western diplomats have said the agreement between Hamas
Abbas's Fatah faction widened divisions within the Quartet - the United
States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
The
unity government agreement, which calmed weeks of factional warfare that
killed more than 90 Palestinians, contained a vague promise to "respect"
previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.
But it fell short of
meeting the Quartet's demands for Hamas to renounce violence and recognize
Israel.
Hamas took control of the Palestinian government in March
after winning parliamentary elections.
The U.S.-led boycott of the
Hamas-led government has pushed the Palestinian Authority to the brink of
financial collapse and raised poverty rates in the Gaza Strip and occupied
West Bank.
A report by the United Nations World Food Program,
released on Thursday, estimated that nearly half of Palestinians were
unable to produce or access the food they needed.