Passage of Abbas plan unlikely to ease sanctions: UN

Wed May 31, 9:02 AM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Passage of a Palestinian statehood proposal that implicitly recognizes Israel would not clear the way for lifting sanctions on the Hamas government but could be a positive step, a top U.N. diplomat said on Wednesday.

Alvaro de Soto, the U.N. special envoy for the Middle East peace process, also told Reuters in an interview he believed President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and Hamas Islamists were not on the brink of civil war despite clashes that have killed 10 people in Gaza this month.

The moderate Abbas, engaged in a power struggle with Hamas, stunned the group by giving it an ultimatum last week to accept a proposal for negotiations leading to a Palestinian state alongside Israel or face a referendum in July.

De Soto called Abbas's move "dramatic," saying it could be a step toward meeting international demands if it was embraced by the Hamas government and other conditions were met.

But when asked if passage of the referendum would clear the way for the West to restore aid to the government, he said:

"We are quite a ways from there right now ... We need to see what their position is on it, the position of the Palestinian Authority government," de Soto said in the first comments by a senior international mediator on a proposal drawn up by prominent Palestinian prisoners in an Israeli jail.

Washington and other Western powers have cut aid to the two-month-old government over Hamas's refusal to meet three conditions: recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and accepting interim peace deals.

Hamas is sworn to destroy Israel and has said talks with the Jewish state would be pointless. Abbas was elected by a landslide in early 2005 in a ballot Hamas did not contest.

De Soto noted most Palestinians favor a two-state solution to end conflict with Israel, but stressed the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators was clear in its demand the government meet the three conditions set as the "minimum threshold."

"We very much hope that (things) will develop in the direction that will make the international donor community feel that they have an acceptable interlocutor in the Palestinian government," de Soto said.

TENSIONS

De Soto said international proposals to pay only some Palestinian workers, mainly in the health sector, could fuel tensions unless major donors agreed to leave the door open to expanding the mechanism later to pay security forces and others.

The Quartet, which comprises the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, is putting together an aid mechanism that would provide assistance directly to needy Palestinians while bypassing the government.

Because of U.S. and Israeli opposition to paying salaries to Palestinian government workers, the mechanism is expected to initially pay "allowances" only to health workers and possibly other social sector employees.

De Soto said the mechanism should have the flexibility to be expanded later to include other workers.

"You don't want security personnel going unpaid, you don't want any personnel going unpaid," de Soto said. "The kind of fragmentation that would occur if some were paid and others were not paid -- I dread to the think of the consequences."

The United Nations and other groups launched an appeal on Wednesday for a jump in funding of 80 percent to $385 million for this year to meet growing Palestinian humanitarian needs. It called the requested increase unprecedented.

Palestinian Finance Minister Omar Abdel-Razek also reiterated on Wednesday that a full month's wages would be paid in a few days to 40,000 government workers whose salaries were less than 1,500 shekels ($332).

But he said it was unclear when the remaining 125,000 workers who earn more would be given an advance promised by the prime minister of 1,500 shekels each.

The government's inability to pay salaries for three months and tensions with Abbas over control of the security forces have sparked internal violence and increased fears of civil war.

But de Soto said he saw signs that Hamas and Fatah had pulled back from full-scale confrontation.

"If they were near a civil war situation, I would say that the loss of life would be much higher. I don't think they are at the brink just now," de Soto said.

Source

About headlines and content that has changed after it was added to this site - see disclaimer here

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.