The Arab League has asked the Hamas-led Palestinian government to adopt the Arab-Israeli peace initiative after a meeting between Palestinian foreign minister Mahmoud Zahar and League Secretary General Amr Mussa.
The representatives of the 22-member organization ‘have asked the government of Hamas to accept the Arab initiative,’ Zahar told reporters after the meeting, adding that he would relay the message to his government ‘to examine the issue.’
The Arab Initiative, adopted at the Beirut summit in 2002, calls on Arab governments to normalize ties with Israel in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from Arab territories according to the 1967 borders and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The proposal has been rejected by Israel.
Following his meeting with Mussa, Zahar addressed the representatives of the Arab states at the League's headquarters in Cairo and called on their governments to fulfill their promises of financial aid to the Palestinians.
‘We are not only looking to follow up on [Arab] aid, we would like to increase it because the [Israeli] occupation bans us from accessing the 60 million dollars per month,’ Zahar said Saturday.
Israel in March ceased the monthly transfer of some 50 million dollars it collects in customs duties on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, which is now unable to pay March salaries to its civil servants.
‘Our Arab brothers intend to help us but we must ensure a mechanism of transparency,’ added Zahar in reference to corruption in the Palestinian Authority.
During the annual meeting of Arab leaders, held last month in Khartoum, Arab governments promised financial aid to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority.
The United States and the European Union this week endorsed a freeze on financial aid to the Palestinians until Hamas agrees to recognize Israel and renounce violence.
Zahar was due to meet Egyptian officials, but they were unable to meet him because of ‘lack of time’.
Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas' political bureau, said that his government would not recognize the state of Israel, despite international pressures.
‘We will not recognize Israel at any cost,’ Meshaal said on Tuesday while on a visit to Tehran.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya Friday told protesters in the Gaza strip that the attempts to ‘isolate’ his cabinet would fail.
‘The Palestinian people will not abandon their government despite the pressures and blockade. We will make do with eating olives and salt, but our resolve will not falter because we are loyal to the principles of our people.
‘We will not relinquish our borders’ and ‘we will not go back on our principles,’ added the senior member of the radical Hamas movement, which refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist or to renounce violence.
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak Tuesday warned that the impoverished Palestinian territories would be a breeding ground for extremism.
‘This aid is meant for Palestinian citizens,’ Mubarak said on his way to Saudi Arabia as part of a Gulf tour. ‘If a citizen can't find food and can't bring up children, he will become an extremist.’
Arab countries have repeatedly urged the international community ‘not to punish the Palestinians’ in the aftermath of the Hamas election victory last January.
The new Palestinian government was sworn in last month after winning January's legislative elections.