The European Union handed the United Nations a check Monday for $78 million in urgent aid for destitute Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, but warned future aid is at risk unless the new Hamas-led government commits to peace.
Meeting in Brussels, the EU foreign ministers discussed the future of the bloc's foreign aid program - worth more than $600 million a year.
‘Hamas is at a crossroads,’ said Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the EU presidency.
She said the organization, which the EU considers a ‘terrorist’ group because it is sworn to destroy Israel, ‘will have to decide which road to take’ for the sake of the well-being of the 4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Hamas must meet international demands.
‘We don't want to punish the Palestinian people for their votes at all,’ Straw told reporters.
‘On the other hand the Palestinian people need to say to any Hamas government that democracy involves responsibilities and above all a responsibility not to get involved in violence.’
Future European aid hinges on ‘commitments the [Hamas] government enters into, and its deeds,’ said EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
She said it was ‘crucial how the new Palestinian Authority positions itself on the questions of violence, of recognition of Israel and standing by previous agreements.’
The aid - half of a one-off, emergency deal agreed last month - is meant to help prevent the collapse of the destitute Palestinian Authority after Israel cut off about $50 million a month in tax money it collects for the Palestinians.
Ferrero-Waldner said that the EU would leave the door open for the new government to change its stance on Israel.
Giving the 25-nation bloc's first reaction to the presentation of the new Hamas-led Palestinian government to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, she told reporters: ‘We are leaving the door open for positive change but we have to make clear we cannot go soft on our principles.’
The Quartet of peace mediators - the United States, the EU, Russia and the United Nations - has said Hamas must recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace agreements or risk losing aid. The EU is the Palestinian's biggest donor with 500 million euros ($609 million) of annual transfers.
‘They [the proposed Palestinian ministers] seem to be drawn from a narrow Hamas base but we will have to judge them on what they do and say in the end,’ Ferrero-Waldner said.
Meanwhile, French President Jacques Chirac on Monday urged the international community to avoid sanctions on the Palestinians even if Hamas offers no clear, quick responses to demands that it renounce violence and recognize Israel.
Chirac was speaking after meetings in Paris with Jordan's King Abdullah II, who suggested in an interview released Monday that the region could plunge into chaos if the Palestinians don't have their own state within two years.