Sweden's foreign aid agency said yesterday it will give 50 million kronor (5.3 million euro, $6.4 million) in humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
The announcement follows an appeal by the United Nations for continued humanitarian support to aid efforts in the occupied Palestinian areas. Sida, the agency that distributes Swedish foreign aid, said in a press release that the aid will be channeled through the UN relief agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, the UN children's agency UNICEF and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA.
The Swedish money will mainly go to health care, food and education, Sida said. Last year, Sida distributed 92 million kronor (9.8 million euro, $11.7 million) in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
Israel branded the Palestinian government a ‘terrorist authority’ Sunday and halted the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax money after Hamas took control of the Palestinian parliament.
The Palestinian Authority, which needs the money to meet its payroll each month, has warned of an economic crisis in the occupied areas following the Israeli decision, Sida said.
Russia on Monday also offered to provide emergency assistance to the Palestinians as part of international humanitarian relief efforts, the Foreign Ministry said.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made the offer during a conference call between members of the so-called quartet of Mideast peace negotiators: Russia, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's invitation to the militant group, made at a news conference in Spain earlier this month, was the latest bid by Moscow to invigorate its role in Middle East peacemaking after years of taking a back seat to the United States. The invitation stunned Israel and other nations.
Hamas's parliamentary victory prompted threats from the United States and European Union to cut off massive aid to the Palestinians unless the group responsible for scores of suicide attacks and designated a ‘terrorist’ organization by many Western nations recognizes Israel and renounces violence.
‘The quartet's position regarding the parameters of donor assistance for the Palestinian National Authority, originally agreed upon in London, was confirmed during the teleconference,’ Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday.
‘Lavrov called for all solutions to this acute issue to be primarily governed by the interests of the Palestinian people. He voiced Russia's readiness to offer an emergency aid to the Palestinians.
Rice warns states supporting Hamas
United States Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said on Tuesday that whoever chooses to fund a Hamas-led Palestinian government must understand the consequences it would impose on the region.
‘I hope the states that finance Hamas and the Palestinian Authority under its leadership understand the ramifications this will have on the region,’ said Rice from Washington, ahead of a Middle East tour scheduled for this week.
Rice is set to arrive in Egypt on Tuesday on a mission to enlist support in the Arab world to isolate Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections last month, and Iran, which Washington believes is planning to develop nuclear weapons. She is also scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
UN envoy slams Israel for holding funds
The UN envoy to the Middle East raised objections on Monday to Israel's decision to withhold tax funds from the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority after a Hamas-led parliament was sworn in.
Special Envoy Alvaro de Soto called the decision unhelpful and premature. Israel has long regarded the UN as a minor player in the Middle East peace process compared to the United States, which did not criticize the decision to withhold funds.
‘These are monies that belong to the Palestinians and should not be withheld,’ de Soto told Reuters one day after the cabinet announced a permanent halt to the monthly transfer of about $50 million in tax revenues Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians.
But de Soto said Israel's decision to withhold the money ran counter to the position taken last month by the Quartet of major peace mediators - the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
After Hamas' victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections on January 25, the Quartet said international donors should continue to aid the caretaker government of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, at least until a new government is formed by Hamas.
‘It follows that the formation of a new government and the approval of its program should be awaited and that actions prior to that would be premature,’ de Soto said.
Asked about de Soto's comments, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said: ‘The government's decision of yesterday stands.’
Israel has called on the international community to shun a Hamas-led government until it renounced violence, recognized Israel's right to exist and agreed to abide by all previously-signed peace agreements.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in an opinion piece published Monday urged the U.S. and Israeli governments to allow the Palestinians to form a government without financial interference.
‘Any tacit or formal collusion between [Israel and the United States] to disrupt the process by punishing the Palestinian people could be counterproductive and have devastating consequences,’ Carter wrote in a piece in Monday's edition of The Washington Post.
‘This common commitment to eviscerate the government of elected Hamas officials by punishing private citizens may accomplish this narrow purpose, but the likely results will be to alienate the already oppressed and innocent Palestinians, to incite violence, and to increase the domestic influence and international esteem of Hamas,’ he wrote.
Iran urges Muslims nations to aid PA
Iran's supreme leader called on Muslim nations Monday to provide annual financial aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian government.
Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal and other officials were in Iran - a top backer of Hamas - in the latest stop of a tour of Arab and Islamic nations aimed at drumming up support as Israel and the United States move to cut off money to the Palestinians.
‘Annual financial 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 Mashaal, according to state-run television.
Khamenei urged Hamas to stick by its rejection and its insistence on the return of Palestinian refugees and the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
‘Continuation of this stance and observing (these issues) as a red line is the only way for success,’ said Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters in Iran.
He said aid from Islamic nations to the Palestinians will send a significant sign to the world and improve relations among Muslims. He praised Hamas' recent victory in the general elections as a ‘divine sweet surprise.’
Israel and the United States, which consider Hamas a ‘terrorist’ group, accuse Iran of giving financial and material support to Hamas, though Tehran insists it only gives moral backing.
Mashaal, heading a Palestinian delegation, arrived in Tehran on Sunday for a two-day visit. He is to meet Iranian leaders including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who provoked international condemnation last year by calling for ‘Israel to be wiped off the map.’
In December, during Mashaal's last visit to Tehran, he supported Iran's hard-line stance against Israel saying that Hamas and Iran formed a united front against Israel.