Arab And Muslim Leaders Rally To Aid Hamas
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-Arab, Muslim leaders rally to offset Palestinian Authority funds witheld by Israel-

Compiled by Daily Star Staff
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
http://dailystar.com.lb

Arab and Muslim leaders rallied Monday to find ways to provide a new source of financing for the Palestinian Authority, while the so-called "Quartet" decided to wait until Hamas takes power before deciding on funding to the government.

The move came a day after Israel's cabinet slapped economic sanctions on the PA Sunday, depriving Palestinians of $50 million in monthly customs duties, which account for around one-third of the national budget.

Arab League foreign ministers met in Algiers in an attempt tp revive a funding plan they originally agreed on in 2002--that would provide the PA with some $50 million a month, while the Muslim Brotherhood said it is launching a worldwide donation campaign for a future government.

It is unclear whether Arab governments will be able to fill the void in the foreign aid that has provided the bulk of the Palestinians' $1.9 billion annual budget.

"Cutting the aid is a very serious issue. It is an attempt to starve the Palestinians and a recipe for chaos," Mohammad Sobeih, the deputy of Arab League chief Amr Moussa, told the Associated Press.

Sobeih said the Arab League can guarantee that all the money donated to the Palestinian Authority "will go to those who really deserve it."

European Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana said the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers held a conference call to discuss the latest developments after Israel slapped economic sanctions on the PA.

At UN headquarters in New York, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said:
"We're not going to get into the legality."
"The Quartet at the end of the meeting this morning agreed they should continue to support the interim government, and you can look at the past Quartet statement which calls for the stabilizing of public finances of the interim government," he said.

According to Dujarric, the participants in the phone conversation were Solana, UN chief Kofi Annan, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.

Solana said: "we will continue to support the Palestinian Authority until the new government is formed and we have tried to find the necessary resources to do that."

Meanwhile two of Hamas' strongest allies tried Monday to rally support.

"Annual financing assistance to Palestine is one way that Muslim nations can share the responsibility of Palestine," Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in talks with Hamas' political chief Khaled Meshaal.

Meshaal was leading a delegation of Hamas officials on a three-day visit to Iran in the latest stop of their tour of the region aimed at ensuring financial and political support.

The Muslim Brotherhood--the region's largest Islamic political movement, with branches and affiliated groups in 86 countries--announced its own private funding drive.

"We will appeal to each and every Muslim to help the Palestinians in the face of this unjust and fierce campaign (against Hamas)," the Brotherhood's supreme leader, Mohammad Mehdi Akef, told the Associated Press in Cairo.

The group will ask its supporters to donate one quarter of their income to support Hamas, Brotherhood official Mohammad Hilal told the Cairo-based Al-Masry Al-Yawm newspaper.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference, a 57-member grouping of Muslim nations, plans to provide institutional and financial aid to the Hamas-led PA, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said.

"I have already spoken to some (OIC) leaders about it. We want to help, too," he told the Associated Press.

The Arab League is not expected to make a final decision on promises of funds until a summit next month in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

So far, Arab nations have fallen far short in their promises. Since 2003, they gave $761 million--only 30 percent of the promised amount over that period according Sobeih.

An additional $1.9 billion in financial and material aid was given to the Palestinians by nongovernmental groups in Arab countries, he said.

Meanwhile, Sweden's state-run aid group, the International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), said in a statement it would provide 50 million Kronor ($6.4 million) to the United Nations' aid programs in the Palestinian territories.

The additional aid was necessary since Israel was not living up to its responsibility as an occupying power, Peter Lundberg of SIDA's humanitarian unit said in a statement.

"According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the occupying power has a particular responsibility to support and ensure the human dignity of the occupied," he said--AGENCIES.