WASHINGTON/DAMASCUS, 10 July 2003 — The United States will provide direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, rewarding Washington-backed political and security reforms with money for humanitarian projects, the White House said yesterday.

“The funds will be used for humanitarian purposes, to alleviate suffering and to improve the Palestinian economy,” White House national security spokesman Michael Anton said, confirming media reports.

The initial outlay will run about $20 million, said the spokesman, citing “considerable support in Congress” for the significant shift in US policy.

The United States to date has provided millions in aid — totaling some $200 million this year — to the Palestinians through the United Nations or non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The move appeared designed to shore up support for Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas and help him recast the Palestinian Authority. Bush mistrusts Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and has shunned him.

“Obviously, none of this would have happened without significant reforms in the Palestinian Authority, especially in the Finance Ministry,” Anton told AFP.

“We have confidence in Palestinian Finance Minister (Salam) Fayyad, and we have confidence that he will use these funds in a transparent manner,” he added.

According to the Washington Post, the move represents a deepening commitment by the administration to the Middle East peace process launched by the president last month, as well as a major investment in Abbas. Administration officials, who briefed congressional leaders about the decision, stressed the urgency of the action, saying they want to get the funds to the Palestinian Authority as quickly as possible to shore up Abbas as he tries to establish his credibility with the Palestinian people, the paper said.

The push for direct aid accelerated after a recent trip to the region by US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, during which Fayyad made an impassioned plea to Rice for direct assistance, The Post reported.

After Rice’s visit, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer had confirmed that Washington was looking into the possibility of funneling direct aid to the Palestinians.

Fleischer had cautioned that any direct assistance would be “contingent on a number of factors,” tied to the US-backed “roadmap” to peace, which aims to create an independent Palestinian state by 2005.

He listed “concrete action to improve security on the ground, positive ongoing steps forward to implement the actual measurable steps required in the roadmap, continued dedication of Palestinian Authority leaders to fighting corruption and to promoting transparency.”

As Bush traveled in Africa yesterday, a top official shrugged off Abbas’ threat to resign from the central committee of Arafat’s Fatah party, calling “not an atypical way of internal Palestinian machinations.”

“It’s just sometimes their way of doing business,” said the official, who requested anonymity.

Assad Calls for Fresh Talks

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad called for renewed peace talks with Israel on the basis of UN land-for-peace resolutions in talks with a top UN official, the official SANA news agency said yesterday.

“We must find a mechanism to relaunch talks” between Syria and Israel from where they left of in January 2000, Assad was quoted as telling UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen late Tuesday.

“Syria has not requested that any party be included in the roadmap” for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Assad said, “because the Syrian track is based on (UN) Security Council resolutions and on the principle of land-for-peace.”

For his part, Roed-Larson said the “Quartet” that drafted the roadmap — the United Nations, United States, Russia and European Union — would back efforts to revive talks.

“The UN and Quartet continue to make efforts to achieve peace on all tracks of negotiation,” Roed-Larson was quoted as saying.

During brief talks in Cairo on Monday, Assad and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged the Quartet to include Syria and Lebanon in its Middle East peace efforts.

Meanwhile, the Israeli leftist group Peace Now said yesterday number of Jewish settler outposts in the West Bank has grown by two since a landmark summit in Jordan last month to kickstart a peace plan which calls for their dismantling.

“At the last count, the Israeli Army had dismantled eight settler outposts, including one which was inhabited,” a spokesman for the organization told AFP.

But “the settlers have established 10 other outposts, including two which are inhabited,” the spokesman added.