Gulf countries "should help Palestinians"

Gulf countries "should help Palestinians"

Reuters
Date: Sunday December 5

CAIRO (Reuters) - Oil-rich Gulf Arab countries should do more to help Palestinians, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos has told reporters, after stressing the importance of upcoming Palestinian elections.

The European Union is the biggest donor to the Palestinian Authority.

"I think it's high time that the Arab countries, the Gulf countries, with ... high revenues from oil, support the Palestinian Authority because they need ... financial support," Moratinos said on Sunday after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Israel has destroyed much of the Palestinian Authority's security and administrative facilities during a four-year-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule. Israel says it destroys what is used to carry out attacks against its citizens.

"The most important issue now is the Palestinian elections," Moratinos, a former EU envoy to the Middle East, added.

Israel and the United States have been pressing the Palestinians since 2002 to find a leader other than President Yasser Arafat, who died in Paris last month.

The Palestinian elections on January 9 will choose a successor, possibly leading to fresh talks with Israel on the future of the Palestinian territories. The main candidates are former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who favours ending the armed uprising, and jailed popular leader Marwan Barghouthi, who says he will continue attacks against soldiers and settlers.

Speaking after Moratinos, Egyptian presidential spokesman Maged Abdel Fattah said Israel had made promises to Egyptian officials which, if kept, would improve the prospect of peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

"We have had promises from the Israelis. That they are going to facilitate the elections and that they are going to allow voters from Jerusalem to vote in the Palestinian elections ... This is the start of a good positive mood. If it prevails, that could constitute a breakthrough," he said.

Egypt was the first Arab state to make peace with Israel. The long-standing U.S. ally says the unresolved Palestinian- Israeli conflict is a main cause of terrorism.

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