RAMALLAH, 21 March 2007 — A senior US official yesterday met with an independent member of the new Palestinian unity government as world powers mulled how to deal with a Cabinet led by the Islamist Hamas movement.
US Consul General in Jerusalem Jacob Walles met with Finance Minister Salam Fayyad in the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinian sources told AFP — the first time a US official has met with a member of the new administration.
Israel’s main ally has refused to recognize the new Palestinian government, but has said that it would not rule out contacts with non-Hamas members of the Cabinet. Fayyad is a US-educated former official with the International Monetary Fund widely respected in the West for his efforts to clamp down on corruption and promote transparency during a first stint as Palestinian finance minister in 2002-2005.
Earlier, Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Al-Barghouti called on the international community to recognize the new Cabinet, inaugurated on Saturday. “We call upon the international community, especially the Quartet, not to procrastinate in recognizing the Palestinian unity government and to deal with it on the basis of its program, which may be a key to peace, security and stability in the region,” Barghouti told AFP.
Israel has canceled a high-level meeting with a visiting Norwegian dignitary after he held talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, Israeli officials said yesterday. They said a senior Foreign Ministry official was to have hosted Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen in the morning but the meeting was canceled under a policy instituted after Hamas won Palestinian elections last year.
Johansen visited Haniyeh on Gaza on Monday, becoming the first Western dignitary to engage directly with the Hamas leadership since the Islamist group formed a unity government with the more moderate Fatah faction over the weekend. His visit came three days after Norway recognized the new government and called on Israel and the international community to work constructively with the new Palestinian coalition and release frozen funds to the Palestinian authorities.
“Foreign dignitaries who meet with the Hamas leadership will not have meetings with Israeli officials. This was a decision taken in 2006,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. “By recognizing an unreformed extremist, you are reinforcing that extremism.”
