Abbas urges EU to continue aid to Palestinians
23/4/2006 9:57
Visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the European Union (EU)
on Saturday to continue aid it suspended to the Palestinians.
Abbas, who is
currently on a visit to Jordan, made the appeal during a closed-door meeting in
a Palestinian guest house in Amman with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel
Moratinos.
Atta Khairy, senior official of the Palestinian delegation, said
that Abbas called for continued EU's aid to the Palestinians during the talks
with Moratinos.
The European Union, the largest donor to the Palestinians,
has frozen direct aid to the Palestinian government since the Islamic Resistance
Movement (Hamas)'s assumption of power.
Hamas, which calls for Israel's
destruction, won the January Palestinian legislative elections by a landslide
and its government was sworn in on March 29.
The EU has demanded Hamas to
renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and accept previous
Palestinian-Israeli deals, three conditions rejected by Hamas.
The aid cuts
by the EU, the United States and some other western countries have led to a
severe financial shortage to the Hamas-led government.
Abbas arrived in
Jordan on late Friday on a tour which will also take him to Turkey, Norway,
Finland and France. The aid issue is expected to top his agenda.
Xinhua News
|
