GAZA, June 15: Western powers rallied behind the Palestinian president on Friday after Hamas fighters routed his forces in the Gaza Strip and began imposing a new order in the enclave after days of bloody civil war.
The United States and European Union as well as the United Nations and Russia -- the Quartet of Middle East mediators -- offered a “clear message of support” to Mahmoud Abbas, the secular president who named a new prime minister after firing the Hamas-led government and declaring a state of emergency.
Washington, Europe and Israel prepared to throw open the taps on financial aid to Abbas that was cut off a year ago when Hamas used its popularity in impoverished Gaza to defeat Abbas's Fatah faction in a parliamentary election.
Abbas named Salam Fayyad, a technocrat who won respect in the West as finance minister to replace Haniyeh, three months after Hamas brought Fatah members into a “unity” government.
But in Gaza, all but divorced now from the larger West Bank in a blow to Palestinians' hopes for statehood, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh refused to accept his dismissal as prime minister. He set about restoring order after six days of battles that ended in revenge killings and looting at Abbas's compound.
In the West Bank, Fatah militants torched Hamas offices and warned of more reprisals if comrades were harmed in Gaza.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and EU officials held an hour-long teleconference.
“There was a clear message of support to President Abbas especially in this difficult time of forming an emergency government,” an EU spokeswoman said in Brussels.
A senior Israeli official expected US efforts to “throw full-fledged support behind (Abbas) and build him up in the West Bank”. —Reuters
