January 14, 2006	Saturday	Zilhaj 13, 1426

JERUSALEM, Jan 13: US aid to the Palestinian Authority would be reviewed and possibly reduced if it gave Hamas a role in government after this month’s Palestinian election, US diplomatic sources said on Friday.

The warning came as top Bush administration officials stepped up pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to disarm the militant group.

The United States wants the Jan 25 parliamentary election to take place as scheduled to strengthen Palestinian democracy and has reluctantly accepted Hamas’s participation in the poll.

But Washington is wary of a strong showing by Hamas, which claims to have carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings against Israelis during the Palestinian uprising.

“There should be no place in the political process for groups and individuals who refuse to renounce terror and violence or refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist or refuse to disarm,” Assistant Secretary of State David Welch said after meeting Mr Abbas in Ramallah.

Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction and classified by the United States as a terrorist organization, is making its first bid for parliamentary seats in the Jan 25 poll. If Hamas makes a strong enough showing against Mr Abbas’s dominant Fatah movement, the group could win seats in a new Palestinian cabinet.

US diplomatic sources warned that such an outcome would prompt a review of financial aid to the Palestinians because of existing prohibitions on providing any ‘material support’ to groups on Washington’s terrorism list.

“It will have ramifications” for US aid to the Palestinians, said one diplomatic source.

Another US diplomatic source said: “We will have to take a look at how exactly to stay within existing laws on dealing with foreign terrorists.”

Stewart Tuttle, spokesman for the US embassy in Israel, said he would not speculate about the impact of Hamas joining the government on US aid levels.

AID AT STAKE? Last year President George Bush proposed a $350 million package for the Palestinians, a sharp rise designed to bolster Mr Abbas’s standing. Washington supplies the Jewish state with more than $2 billion in aid every year.

Increasing pressure on President Bush to take a harder line, the US House of Representatives warned last month that Hamas’s participation in the election could jeopardise US assistance. The European Union has also signalled that aid could be curbed.

The issue of Hamas’s participation has underlined the dilemma facing the United States and other Western powers that advocate free elections in the Middle East, but also worry that victory will go to groups such as Hamas.

Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, spokeswoman for the US consulate in Jerusalem, said US diplomats would be barred from having any direct contacts with Hamas members elected to parliament, as well as those with ties to the group.

Although best known to the outside world as an armed group, Hamas is admired by many Palestinians for charity work in Gaza and the West Bank and has a corruption-free image that stands in contrast to Fatah’s reputation for graft and cronyism.

In a pragmatic change in tone, Hamas has omitted its long-standing call to destroy Israel from a manifesto for the election. But the pamphlet reaffirmed Hamas’s commitment to a ‘fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital’ and ‘armed resistance to end occupation’.—Reuters