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U.S. rallies behind Abbas

Rory McCarthy and Simon Tisdall

Washington/Ramallah: The Bush administration on Monday night lifted its political and economic embargo on the Palestinian Authority and said it would contribute $40 million in immediate humanitarian aid to assist Palestinians, including those in Hamas-run Gaza.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had offered full U.S. support to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the newly appointed Government, whose Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, is an economist favoured by the West, in a phone call earlier in the day.

“I told [Fayyad] the U.S. would resume full assistance to the Palestinian Government,” she said.

Ms Rice said the U.S. believed there was one Palestinian people with one leadership and that was headed by Mr Abbas. But she pledged not to turn her back on Gaza.

“We are not going to leave 1.5 million Palestinians at the mercy of a terrorist organisation ... We are not going to abandon the Palestinians who are living in Gaza.”

Ms Rice said the $40 million would be distributed via the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.

President Bush, who spoke to Mr Abbas on Monday, is expected to discuss the Palestinian leader’s plea for resumed peace talks when he meets Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the White House on Tuesday.

Israel on Monday ordered a halt to all cargo shipments bound for Gaza, which is now under full Hamas control. All crossings into Gaza remain closed.

But an Israeli firm that sells fuel to Gaza said it would lift restrictions on sales.

As both Israel and the West sought to clearly differentiate their policies towards the two Palestinian territories, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni argued for further isolation of Hamas.“We should take advantage of this split to the end,” said Ms Livni, who was in Luxembourg.

“It differentiates between the moderates and the extremists.”

She said Palestinian tax transfers, worth more than $500 million but frozen by Israel, would be released if the new Government accepted Israel’s right to exist.

E.U. officials said they were still assessing when to restart funding to the Palestinian Government. All direct funding was halted in March last year, after Hamas won elections and formed a government.

The Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

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