US envoy defies Israel by holding talks with Palestinian minister

Published: 21 March 2007

The US has opened contacts with a senior Palestinian minister in a move which underlined a difference between Israel and its closest allies over their approach to the new coalition government.

Salam Fayyad, the moderate Finance minister, disclosed that he had held a meeting in Ramallah with Jacob Walles, the US consul general in Jerusalem.

Israel's cabinet on Sunday approved a policy of having no contacts with ministers in the new "national unity" Palestinian Authority whether they were in Hamas or not. Raymond Johansen, deputy foreign minister of Norway, which has said it will end its boycott of the PA because of the new coalition, said yesterday that Israel had declined to meet him in protest at his meeting in Gaza on Monday with the Hamas Prime Minister, Ishmail Haniyeh.

The US had already indicated that it was prepared to meet members of the new government like Mr Fayyad, a former World Bank official with whom it has already had regular contacts. But it has stopped well short of suggesting it would resume direct aid or seek to lift US banking restrictions on the PA without the new government meeting the internationally agreed conditions. These are recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence and agreement to honour previous agreements between the two sides.

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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2377706.ece

The Bush administration will reduce a proposed $86 million security assistance package to the Palestinian government in an effort to see that none of the money ends up with forces loyal to the radical Hamas movement.

As she prepares to visit the Middle East later this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday she would soon send Congress a revised package that will ensure only security elements loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas receive the aid.

“I have reformulated the plan, it’s almost ready to come to you,” Rice told lawmakers. “It will request less money, precisely because some of the money I would have requested I could not fully account for.”

She did not provide specifics of the reduction but said the new plan would leave intact a “firewall” aimed at keeping the money away from Hamas, a partner in the new Palestinian unity government established last weekend.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3379571,00.html