The European Union and the United Nations eased their diplomatic
boycott of the Palestinian government Wednesday, by agreeing to
hold talks with non-Hamas ministers.
The contacts followed a meeting on Tuesday between a senior US
diplomat and Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, an
independent with close ties to the White House and President
Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction.
By holding the talks, the United States broke ranks with Israel,
which has urged the international community to shun all members of
the Palestinian unity cabinet that Hamas Islamists and Fatah
established on Saturday.
EU Middle East envoy Marc Otte met Fayyad in the West Bank city
of Ramallah Wednesday, a day after talks in Gaza with Palestinian
Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr, European and Palestinian officials
said.
UN envoy Alvaro de Soto planned to see Fayyad later in the day,
UN officials said.
In Berlin, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said she will
travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories at the end of
March for a first-hand assessment of the new Palestinian
administration.
"These are the first substantive contacts between the UN and the
national unity government," a UN official said.
The meetings marked the re-establishment of at least limited
engagement between the Palestinian government and the Quartet of
Middle East mediators the United States, the European Union, the
United Nations and Russia.
"This is part of our endeavor to end the siege," Palestinian
Information Minister Mustafa al-Barghouthi said, referring to a
year-old ban by Western powers on direct aid to the Palestinian
government.
US and Israeli officials say the edict, imposed after Hamas came
to power in a January 2006 election, remains in place.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said France
had sent an invitation to Abu Amr, an independent.
(China Daily via agencies March 22, 2007)
