SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Hamas will not receive any of the American aid earmarked for the reconstruction of Gaza and the Palestinian Authority, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday at the Gaza donors conference.
Speaking at the second session of the conference alongside other foreign ministers and Quartet Middle East Envoy Tony Blair, Clinton, as well as almost every other delegation representative attending made it abundantly clear that the funds pledged at the conference would solely go through the Palestinian Authority.
We have worked with the Palestinian Authority to install safeguards that will ensure our funding is only used where and for whom it is intended and does not end up in the wrong hands, she said.
The US pledged $900 million at the conference, $300 million for urgent humanitarian assistance in Gaza and the remainder going to the coffers of the Palestinian Authority to buffer its budget deficit.
Clinton continued to criticize Hamas, saying the Palestinians should follow the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, not the violence and false choices of extremists whose tactics, including rocket attacks that continue to this day, only will lead to more hardship and suffering.
The newly installed Secretary of State did however make it clear that she was mandated by US President Barack Obama to seek a lasting peace in the region.
The United States is committed to a comprehensive peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors and we will pursue [this] on many fronts, she said. So too we will pursue vigorously a two state solution between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal stressed that it was imperative that Palestinian reconciliation was back on track and Israel would not launch any further offensives on the territories if the aid pledged to the reconstruction of Gaza was going to be properly utilized.
Saudi Arabia calls on all the Palestinian brothers to contain their internal differences and put national reconciliation ahead of everything, he said, The atrocious aggression of Israel on Gaza led to a disastrous situation, the Palestinian economy is suffering from an unjust and aggressive siege and this leads to the belief that peace is far fetched.
Saudi Arabia has pledged $1 billion to Gaza, and Al Faisal added, The reconciliation will not be feasible while we don’t have security and stability and it is inconceivable that Gaza be reconstructed only for Israeli to destroy it again.
Clinton said, Time is of the essence, we cannot afford more setbacks and delays, and now is not the time for recriminations, its time to look ahead.
She did, however, point out the suffering in Gaza saying, A child growing up in Gaza has the same right to go to school, go to a doctor as a child growing up in your country or mine.
Blair said, This is the moment when we show the Palestinian leadership that is committed to peace the support of the international community and that there was hope for the future, not destruction.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner urged the Arabs to not suspend the Arab peace initiative and to keep up their efforts in promoting the initiative first introduced by King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia in 2002.
Assistance to the Palestinians is one step up the ladder to a lasting and comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, Clinton said.
For the Palestinians, it means that it is time to break the cycle of rejection and resistance and to cut the strings pulled by those who exploit the suffering of innocent people, she said, For Israel, it means to show the Palestinians that there is benefit in negotiations.
Norway was co-chair of the donors’ conference and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store made it abundantly clear that the reconstruction funds would be parceled out solely through the Palestinian Authority.
