U.N. official urges West not to isolate Palestinians
Source: Reuters
LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees urged the West on Tuesday to stop isolating the Palestinian Authority following an agreement by Hamas and the rival Fatah faction to form a unity government. "It's time to demonstrate the courage ... to abandon the policy of isolation and replace it with an approach that is more conducive to peace and stability," Karen Koning AbuZayd, commissioner-general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said. "Only tragic consequences will follow if we continue along the present path of isolating the Palestinian Authority and arming one side against the other," she said in a speech at the Chatham House think-tank in London. Rival Palestinian factions, meeting in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, signed a deal on Feb. 8 to form a unity government, hoping to end bloodshed between their followers and win back Western aid cut off after Islamist group Hamas came to power in a January 2006 election. The deal does not call on the new government to recognise Israel or renounce violence, and includes a vague pledge to respect, rather than accept, interim peace deals. That falls short of meeting the demands of the Quartet of Middle East mediators, made up of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. U.S. President George W. Bush's administration has made clear its concerns about dealing with a government that includes Hamas. "How can it be that you will have talks about peace if one party does not accept the right of the other party to exist?" U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last month, referring to Hamas's rejection of Israel. Russia broke ranks with its Quartet partners by telling visiting Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal last month it would try to convince the Western powers to lift a crippling aid embargo on the Hamas-led government. The EU has so far shown little sign of backing away from the Quartet's demands, though it has shown more flexibility than Washington or Israel. AbuZayd said there were Palestinians who were weary of war. "It is to these Palestinians we must appeal," she said. "Abandoning our combative, adversarial approach will restore the credibility of the international community and reassure all sides that it's possible to achieve peace by peaceful means," she said. AbuZayd also said that donors had so far pledged only $17 million to UNRWA's $246 million emergency appeal for 2007.
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