Mideast Quartet presses Arab states, Israel
by Guy JacksonFri May 2, 11:22 AM ET
Key world powers called Friday on Arab states to fulfil their promises of aid for the Palestinians and voiced deep concern over the humanitarian impact of a nine-month-old Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.
In a joint statement issued after the Middle East Quartet held talks in London, the powers also called on Israel to stop building or extending settlements in the West Bank.
The Mideast Quartet -- the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union -- urged Arab donor states to follow through on commitments to the Palestinians made at a Paris conference in December.
"The Quartet encouraged the Arab states to fulfil both their political and financial roles in support of the Annapolis process," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, citing an agreed statement.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who attended Friday's talks, said: "I think there have been pledges that have been fulfilled but clearly when you make a pledge you ought to fulfil it.
"That is the point that I will be making to all states."
At the Paris meeting, the international community pledged more than seven billion dollars (4.5 billion euros) in aid, including 1.5 billion dollars in budgetary support, mostly to be spent on civil servants' salaries.
According to the State Department, of the 717 million dollars contributed so far, 500 million dollars have come from the EU, Britain, Norway, France and the United States.
Some 215 million dollars have been paid by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Algeria, and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Friday that Kuwait had agreed to make an immediate payment of 80 million dollars.
Fayyad, speaking after a separate meeting in London on aid for the Palestinians, said while he welcomed the Kuwaiti move, the main obstacle to economic reconstruction in Gaza was the Israeli blockade.
"Life there is extremely miserable," he told journalists. "There is no substitute to re-opening the crossings."
The Quartet also urged Israel to ease the blockade to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza.
"The Quartet called for continued emergency and humanitarian assistance and the provision of essential services to Gaza without obstruction," Ban added.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair, now the Quartet's envoy, said the situation in Gaza was "terrible."
But he said before the blockade could be lifted, it was essential that rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled territory into Israel ceased.
Before the London talks, aid agencies had warned of "an impending humanitarian crisis" in Gaza and urged the Quartet to press Israel to end the blockade, which it imposed after Islamist group Hamas seized power in June.
The Quartet also called on Israel to "freeze all settlement activity including natural growth, and to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001."
Rice was due to go on from London to Jerusalem and the West Bank, to try to kickstart stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, ahead of a visit to the region by President George W. Bush later this month.
Blair also voiced optimism that an agreement on a Middle East peace deal was possible "faster than people think."
Hamas has insisted that, as part of any truce to end violence, Israel must lift the blockade, but Israel on Thursday rejected an Egyptian proposal to ease restrictions.
Separately, on Iran, a six-power grouping comprising the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany agreed to make a new offer to Tehran to resolve the nuclear standoff between the West and the Islamic republic.
"I am glad to say that we have got agreement on an offer that will be made to the government of Iran," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband after talks with his counterparts.
Miliband said the contents of the offer would only be disclosed to Iran.
The West fears Iran wants to use its nuclear programme to make atomic weapons but Iran insists the drive is peaceful and solely aimed at providing energy for a growing population.