JERUSALEM/WEST BANK: German Chancellor Angela Merkel wraps up her two day Middle East tour with talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah

Record ID: 401191

  • Title: JERUSALEM/WEST BANK: German Chancellor Angela Merkel wraps up her two day Middle East tour with talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah
  • Date: 31st January 2006
  • Summary: (W3) JERUSALEM (JANUARY 30, 2006) (REUTERS) ISRAELI PRESIDENT MOSHE KATSAV AND MERKEL SITTING MERKEL AND KATSAV SHAKING HANDS
  • Embargoed: 15th February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA137QRMFYY34PUCJPJE74CIUER
  • Story Text: German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrapped up her two day Middle East tour on Monday (January 30) with a visit to the West Bank city of Ramallah to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
    During a joint press conference Abbas urged foreign donors to keep giving aid to the Palestinian Authority after Hamas Islamists won parliamentary elections and said they would abide by all agreements with Israel.
    The European Union and United States have suggested that vital funding for the Palestinian Authority could be cut if Hamas does not abandon violence and recognise Israel, which it is formally committed to destroying in its charter.
    "Our discussions also dealt with the continuation of financial and other types of support in order to allow the Palestinian people continue to function," Abbas said.
    Merkel threatened to cut vital European Union (EU) aid to the Palestinians during her visit to the region and urged Hamas to recognise Israel and renounce violence.
    "I made it clear that Germany expects all political forces that carry responsibility to accept the preconditions for political activity, that means for me firstly, that Israel's existence is recognised, and secondly, there is no use of violence," Merkel said during a joint press conference with Abbas.
    Merkel is the first EU leader to visit the area since Hamas swept to victory over the moderate leader's long-dominant Fatah faction in a parliamentary election on Wednesday (January 25).
    During 2005 the EU gave the Palestinian Authority 500 million euros ($615 million U.S. Dollars), money vital for its survival. On Monday in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, who headed Hamas's list of candidates in the election, appealed to the EU not to cut the sorely needed aid.
    Asked about disarming, he 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".
    Hamas's election triumph continued to create political turmoil. Some 30 Palestinian policemen, firing in the air, seized the parliament building in Gaza to vent their frustrations over Fatah's defeat.
    It was the most explicit threat to cut aid from the EU, the biggest donor to the Palestinians, since Hamas won the election. Washington has also threatened to block funding.
    Members of the Middle East peace-brokering Quartet -- the European Union, the United Nations, the United States and Russia -- were to meet in London on Monday to discuss whether isolating Hamas politically and financially is the best policy.
    The United States, which has given more than $1.5 billion U.S. Dollars 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 U.S. Dollars in assistance to the Palestinians.
    Hamas, expected to form the new government, has denounced Western threats to cut aid as blackmail and rejected calls to disarm and end its formal commitment to destroy Israel.
    But Merkel said on Sunday (January 29) 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.
    Merkel did not elaborate on the meaning of "direct", though her phrasing suggested the EU might consider indirect humanitarian support for the impoverished Palestinian people.
    Merkel met with several Israeli leaders during her two-day visit, including Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Labour Party leader Amir Peretz and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Merkel also paid a visit to Jerusalem's Holocaust Museum "Yad Vashem", where she laid a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance and ignited the Eternal Flame.
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