GAZA CITY, 14 February 2005 — A tangible improvement in living conditions will encourage Palestinians to turn their back on violence and embrace the peace process, visiting Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said yesterday. After holding talks with new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Bondevik also said he would urge Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to do his utmost to help improve the daily lives of the residents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“The Norwegian government are ready to assist both you and the Israelis in any way we can,” he said. “It’s so important to get enough economic resources to the Palestinian areas, so that the Palestinians can really feel in their daily life that there is an improvement of economical, social living conditions, so they will also be convinced that the road of peace is the future also for the Palestinian.”
Bondevik said it was incumbent on Israel to match efforts by Abbas to prevent attacks by militants with an easing on security restrictions. “I think there is a link between the efforts of the Palestinians to fight terrorism and to increase security on one hand and other the Israelis’ willingness to ease the life of the Palestinian in their daily life
“I will urge Prime Minister Sharon to do his utmost to ease the daily life of the Palestinians, because I am convinced that Abbas is doing his utmost for security also for the Israelis,” added Bondevik who was due to hold talks with Sharon later in the day in Jerusalem. Abbas has won an agreement from factions such as Hamas to continue observing a period of quiet which stops short of a formal cease-fire declaration. Asked about the possibility that Hamas and its smaller rival Islamic Jihad would break the agreement, Abbas said the factions had assured him they would respect a “cooling down period” in talks in Gaza on Saturday when he briefed them on last week’s summit with Sharon in Egypt.
“Yesterday we discussed with Hamas and Islamic Jihad the result of the summit in Sharm El-Sheikh for a long time and they assured their commitment to the period of quiet,” he said. “We appeal to the Israelis that there will not be any aggression from their side because the Palestinian organizations are showing their commitment to the calm.”
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to join a meeting on Palestinian reform in London on March 1, lending weight to an initiative by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to aid the Middle East peace process. Annan confirmed yesterday he will accompany top envoys from the other three parties in the Middle East quartet — the United States, Russia and the European Union — in London for the meeting on reform of Palestinian institutions and financial aid.
“As you know, the prime minister has called for a meeting here in London on the 1st of March to discuss how we can help the Palestinians,” Annan told BBC TV.
