WEST BANK: German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and unity government ministers in Ramallah

German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank on Saturday (May 5) and held a first round of talks with the new Palestinian unity government. Despite a year-old international embargo on the Palestinian government, the European Union had approved meetings of European officials with non-Hamas members of the new unity government. The power sharing deal between Islamic militant Hamas and Abbas's Fatah party was signed in March in a bid to end internal fighting and to end economic sanctions. Steinmeier started his day-long tour in the occupied territory with a visit to the town of Bethlehem, where he met Palestinian Minister of Finance, Salam Fayyad, an independent, and toured the Church of the Nativity, one of Christianity's holiest sites. Fayyad and Steinmeier, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, discussed mechanisms of money transfer to Palestinian government workers who have not received full wages since western countries imposed sanctions on the Palestinian government since Hamas Islamists rose to power on March 2006. The European Union said last week that aid from the bloc would continue to bypass the Palestinian government until it recognises Israel, renounces violence and abides by interim peace deals, as demanded by the Quartet of Middle East mediators and Israel. Steinmeier said he was encouraged by Arab states' support for a new peace initiative and stressed it was important to maintain momentum despite political upheaval in Israel. "There is a chance that through our current efforts we can promote peace and stability in the Middle East. Nonetheless, the risk is at least as great, and so we are all under time pressure. I'm pleased that for the first time in the last 20 years we have support from at least some Arab states, which ensured that the Arab peace initiative was renewed at the Arab League summit. This is more than a good sign -- it's a hopeful start," Steinmeier told reporters. The EU voiced full support for the plan revived at an Arab Summit in Riyadh in March, offering Israel peace and relations in exchange for complete withdrawal from Arab land occupied in 1967 and a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. Steinmeier later headed to the city of Ramallah, where he met Abbas and several other ministers. At a joint press conference in Ramallah, Palestinian Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr appealed for an end to the boycott which crippled the Palestinian economy. "We asked his excellency to exert his utmost effort, as German foreign minister and as the president of the European Union, to end the siege on the Palestinian People," Abu Amr said. Palestinians want an end to sanctions, imposed last year over Hamas's refusal to renounce violence, that have crippled the economy. Steinmeier is expected to meet Israeli leadership in Jerusalem on Sunday. Steinmeier will conclude his seventh trip to the Middle East, with a visit to Riyadh on Tuesday, where he will be representing the EU at a meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council.

ITN Source | May 6, 2007

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