Abbas: 'Please end aid freeze'
2006-05-09 22:13
Ramallah - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has urged Middle East peace brokers to end a foreign-aid freeze on the country's Hamas-led government, warning of deeper instability ahead in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Nine people were wounded in a second day of gun battles between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah faction on Tuesday.
The violence is fuelled by a power struggle between Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas for control of security forces.
Hamas won the elections in January.
In a letter to the "Quartet" of peace brokers, who planned to meet later in the day in New York, Abbas appealed for funds to pay 165 000 government salaries - overdue since March.
Abbas wrote: "A quarter of the Palestinians rely on the public-sector salaries, and failure to pay these salaries could jeopardise the very foundation of the institutions of the Palestinian Authority and the future Palestinian state."
Local, regional and international banks, fearful of facing United States anti-terrorism sanctions and lawsuits, have refused to deal with Palestine, creating a liquidity crisis in the country.
Israel demands Hamas renounces violence
Several proposals, including a French proposal to allow the World Bank to channel funds to pay salaries, are expected to be presented when the Quartet - the US, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia - convenes.
Israel and major donor nations have demanded Hamas renounces violence, recognise the Jewish state's right to exist and embrace existing peace deals.
Hamas advocates Israel's destruction, but has largely abided by a truce for more than a year. It says talks with the Israeli government would be a waste of time.
Abbas said the surge in violence between Fatah and Hamas, in which three gunmen were killed on Monday, was "unfortunate and unacceptable".
Haniyeh said he had asked Fatah and Hamas leaders "to put an end to these sad events" and keep gunmen under control.
In the letter, Abbas asked the forum to continue to base Middle East peacemaking on its sponsored "road map".
The plan charts reciprocal steps leading to a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Abbas said he rejected "unilateral moves" - a reference to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to set Israel's borders by 2010 with or without Palestinian agreement.
He repeated a call for Olmert to meet him.
Road-map commitments ignored
Peace talks have been frozen amid Israeli-Palestinian violence for years.
Both sides have failed to carry out road-map commitments, including the disarming of Palestinian militant groups and an end to Israeli settlement expansion.
Palestinians said Olmert's proposal to evacuate isolated Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, bolster major enclaves and draw a frontier roughly along a barrier Israel was building in the territory would deny them a viable state.
- Reuters