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"In its program, the unity government is taking important steps towards complying with the international community's demands," said Stoere. |
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A few hours after Norway normalized ties with the new Palestinian unity government, the US announced it would deal with non-Hamas ministers while France invited the new foreign minister to visit Paris, reported Haaretz daily.
"In terms of individuals who are not members of foreign terrorist organizations, we will not suspend contacts with individual Palestinians solely based on their participation in the unity government," said Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, spokeswoman for the US consulate in Al-Quds.
She said the administration "will make individual decisions based on our evaluation of the situation."
The US designates the ruling Hamas movement as a terrorist organization but is known to have good ties with a number of US-educated technocrats in the Hamas-led government, including ministers who served in previous Palestinian cabinets.
The shift in US policy amounts to a break with Israel, which has vowed to shun the entire unity government cabinet, Haaretz commented on the new decision.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged the international community Sunday to maintain the boycott of the Palestinian government.
Eight-three of the 87 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council attending a video-linked session in Gaza and Ramallah Sunday voted in favor of the unity government.
Forty-one of the council's 132 members, including 37 from Hamas, are in Israeli jails. Israeli travel restrictions prevented the legislators from meeting in a single venue.
The American diplomat indicated, however, that the year-long ban on direct aid to the Palestinian government will remain in place for now.
"There's no change in our assistance policy. But we remain committed to providing assistance to the Palestinian people and we'll continue to do that through the UN and other organizations."
A US-led aid-freeze paralyzed the outgoing government and made it unable to pay hundreds of thousands of civil servants for as many months.
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| "If, God forbid, we now give even a minimal impression of rejectionism, how will we face the entire world in another two weeks, after the Riyadh summit?" said Magadla. |
Recognition
The new American position came hours after Norway announced it was normalizing ties with the new Palestinian government, the Aftenposten daily reported on Sunday.
"We will end all self-imposed restrictions in the political and economic contacts with the Palestinian government," Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told a Social Democrat party gathering.
He called the formation of the new government a "courageous decision".
Norway, where Israel and the PLO secretly negotiated their first peace accord in the early 1990s, called on the international community to cooperate with Palestinian authorities.
"We particularly call on Israel to take a constructive approach to the unity government, for example by releasing withheld Palestinian revenues from taxes and fees and by increasing the freedom of movement for the Palestinian population," said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.
Hours later, the French Foreign Ministry extended an invitation to Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Abu Amr to visit Paris.
Britain, Washington's main European ally, said Saturday it plans contacts with non-Hamas ministers.
Germany, which hold the current rotating EU presidency, welcomed the new government, but pointedly made reference to the Quartet's terms.
It said renewal of direct assistance would depend on an assessment of the new cabinet's platform and actions.
It asserted that aid will continue to the Palestinians through a Temporary International Mechanism bypassing the government "until the financial situation and future needs can be assessed and a more sustainable framework for assistance can be established".
Russia, which has in the past twice hosted a high-level delegation of Hamas, said the international community should back the new government.
Israeli Culture, Sports and Science Minister Galeb Magadla, a member of the centre-left Labour Party, criticized Sunday Olmert's position on the new government.
"Half of the ministers in the new government signed the Oslo agreements with us in the past. Do we want to forsake them because of Hamas people with whom we have a problem?" Magadla told the Israeli Army Radio.
He described Israel's policies as unacceptable meddling in Palestinian affairs, saying that the Arab League would convene in Riyadh later this month to discuss the new Palestinian government in the context of the Saudi peace proposal.
"That's what we fought for all of these years — normalization with the Arab world," said Magadla.
"If, God forbid, we now give even a minimal impression of rejectionism, how will we face the entire world in another two weeks, after the Riyadh summit?"
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