January 31, 2006	Tuesday	Muharram 1, 1427

RAMALLAH (West Bank), Jan 30: Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas both appealed to foreign donors on Monday to lift threats to cut vital aid to a new Palestinian government that the Islamic militant group is set to form.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has threatened to curtail EU monetary support, said after meeting Abbas in the West Bank that aid depended on whether Hamas met conditions that include “abandoning violence and recognising Israel.”

Abbas stressed to Merkel that despite Hamas’s victory over his long-dominant Fatah party, the Palestinians under his leadership remained committed to eventual peace talks and stood by all agreements with Israel.

“I stressed the importance of the continuation of financial and other types of support by the donor countries,” Abbas told a news conference. He said such aid was vital for the plan of building a peaceful Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Abbas dismissed suggestions that he could resign if his agenda for peacemaking was blocked.

Hamas is formally dedicated to Israel’s destruction and carried out a suicide bombing campaign during the Palestinian uprising which broke out in 2000.

Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader in Gaza, urged foreign donors to continue to send money to the Palestinian Finance Ministry. Last year, the EU gave the Palestinian Authority 500 million euros ($615 million), funds vital for its survival.

“We call on you to understand the priorities of our Palestinian people at this stage and continue the spiritual and financial support in order to push the region towards stability rather than pressure and tension,” he told reporters.

But asked about disarming, Haniyeh said the EU had to understand Palestinian reality and not press demands that increase the suffering of our people who are looking for freedom, right of (refugee) return and independence.

Mohammed Nazzal, a Hamas leader in Damascus, told Al Arabiya television the Americans and the European Union are dreaming if they think they can force us to change our positions.

On Sunday, Merkel said there was no way the European Union could provide direct financial support for a Palestinian government that included Hamas as long as the group refused to give up violence and acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.

“If these principles, as I have presented them, are accepted then support is of course possible,” Merkel said in Ramallah alongside Abbas.

Merkel, who met interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday, is the first EU leader to visit the area since the Palestinian election. She did not plan to meet Hamas members during the trip.

In Brussels, the bloc’s external relations commissioner said the EU did not want the Palestinian Authority to collapse.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner told reporters a World Bank mission would visit the Palestinian territories in early February to assess the needs of the Authority, which has warned of an imminent cash crunch.

The United States, which has given more than $1.5 billion in aid to the Palestinians since 1993, has begun a full review of such assistance programmes since Hamas’s election win.

For 2006, the United States had budgeted $234 million in assistance to the Palestinians.

US Secretary of State Rice said she believed the United Nations, the EU, Russia and other powers involved in the Middle East were “on the same page” — that funding must not go to Hamas and other groups that advocated destroying Israel.

Haniyeh, promising reforms and anti-corruption moves, called on the quartet to open a dialogue with Hamas and show “neutrality and fairness”.

Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas spokesman, said the group could opt to seek alternative funding from Arab nations.—Reuters