[IslamCity] Saudis Rebuff Custodian of Israel's Demand to Stop Aid to Palestinians

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 16:35:55 -0800

“Cluster Bombs & Cruise Missiles May Only Kill Thousands But it is the Anti-Zionist Words that will Land You in Trouble in the Land of ‘FREE’ Speech!”
Saudis Will Keep Up Aid Flow to Palestinians
Kingdom's Policy Rebuffs Rice's Push To Isolate Hamas
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 23, 2006; Page A10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/22/AR2006022201496.html
 
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 22 -- Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab donor to the Palestinians, said Wednesday it would continue that aid despite the prospect of a Hamas-led cabinet, though it also expressed support for peace initiatives rejected by Hamas that allow for the eventual recognition of Israel. "We wish not to link the international aid to the Palestinian people to considerations other than their dire humanitarian needs," the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met one-on-one for nearly 2 1/2 hours with King Abdullah.
 
Saud's statement put the kingdom at odds with the U.S. push to isolate the Palestinians, except for the provision of humanitarian aid. It came one day after Egyptian officials also told Rice that Islamic groups needed to be given time to evolve and accept Israel.
 
On a day of delicate diplomacy that also included a lengthy one-on-one meeting with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, Rice confronted the contradictions of the administration's Middle East policy. On trips to the region in the past year, she repeatedly pushed Arab governments to step up monetary support for the Palestinians while arguing that they must open up their political systems. This week, in her first trip since Hamas's unexpected victory Jan. 25, she has urged caution in supporting a Palestinian legislature that came to power in a democratic election.
 
Rice said she was not muting her push for democratic reforms. In Egypt, she met for more than an hour Wednesday with a small group of dissidents and democracy activists, who complained bitterly about Mubarak's efforts to limit political freedom. But on Tuesday she also spent nearly two hours discussing the Palestinian situation with the Egyptian intelligence chief, who handles contacts with Hamas -- and keeps tabs on dissidents.
 
Saudi Arabia, as an Islamic kingdom, is wary of being perceived as punishing Palestinians who elected a parliament dedicated to Islamic rule. "It would be the ultimate of irony that, at the time when we need to take care of these people who are seeking peace, we shall fall short of doing so," Saud said. "How do we distinguish between humanitarian and non-humanitarian aid? Infrastructure projects or humanitarian aid projects? They need both, infrastructure and humanitarian aid."
 
Hamas, formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, receives substantial funding from individuals and groups in Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations, as well as Iran, partly because of its charitable work building schools and hospitals. According to the Web site GlobalSecurity.org, Hamas receives about $12 million a year from various Saudi sources.
 
Despite the differences over aid, which could lessen the pressure on Hamas, U.S. officials have taken comfort in the statements by Arab officials calling on Hamas to work for a negotiated settlement with Israel.
"Different countries will have different modalities on how to deal with this," Rice said at a news conference with Saud. "For the United States, Hamas is a terrorist organization. We cannot give funding to a terrorist organization. It's really that simple."
 
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that in private meetings Saudi officials expressed discomfort with Hamas's victory and reserved judgment on how aid might be affected. Saudi Arabia currently provides about $15 million in monthly aid through the Arab League for the Palestinian Authority budget, and U.S. officials said Saudi officials made it clear that aid would continue for now. But the Saudis also suggested that money eventually might be redirected away from the government to other Palestinian entities, the U.S. officials said.
 
A Saudi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said months might pass before Saudi Arabia believes Hamas has failed to prove itself. He noted that the ailing Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was considered an extremist when he was elected, and now he is hailed as a peacemaker.
 
Rice's aides provided only general details of the secretary's discussions with Mubarak and Abdullah, which also dealt with Iran's nuclear program. Suleiman Awad, a spokesman for Mubarak, said the president emphasized the need to maintain support for the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, a member of the Fatah party, which lost control of the legislature to Hamas in the elections.
 
Rice, who will address foreign ministers from the Persian Gulf states in a meeting Thursday in the United Arab Emirates, is seeking broad support for U.N. Security Council actions against Iran over its nuclear programs. Saud said that Saudi Arabia wanted to free the region of nuclear weapons but that "there is no proof yet that they are producing atomic weapons. They deny this. They've denied it many times to us."
 
In her hour-long meeting with seven Egyptian activists, Rice said little and took her own notes. Several of them told Rice -- who praised Mubarak publicly Tuesday for allowing opposition in last year's presidential election -- that the Egyptian president was trying to manipulate the political system so that his only viable opponent is the Muslim Brotherhood. This would make Mubarak's autocratic government more acceptable to Western powers, they asserted.
 
The Egyptian government "keeps the Islamists as the main opposition to highlight its moderation," said Hala Mostafa, editor of the Arabic-language weekly Democracy. One prominent dissident, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, said in an interview after the meeting that he was reassured that Rice understood it was important for the United States to keep pressure on Mubarak. But he said reformers worry because history shows that the United States, when faced with a choice, will ultimately betray democratic forces, citing Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968 and China in 1989.
 
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