RAMALLAH, West Bank, 14 July 2006 — Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi unveiled nearly $30 million in fresh aid to the Palestinians yesterday, urging calm in the full glare of an escalating Middle East crisis.
Koizumi announced the new package in humanitarian assistance, to be distributed mainly through UN bodies, when he met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah amid widening regional chaos.
Tokyo, the third largest donor for the Palestinians after the United States and the European Union, insists the aid will not be used to finance the Hamas-led administration, which is politically and financially boycotted by the West.
Of the money, $25 million will be spent on water supply, garbage disposal, sanitation and vaccination projects, with the rest to be used for reconstruction of the presidential office and other projects.
“I am extremely worried about the current situation,” Koizumi told a joint news conference with Abbas at the presidential office.
“In the short-term, Israel and the Palestinians are angry and have the thought of an eye for an eye, but that is no way. But Japan will continue support the peace process by consulting with both parties,” he added.
Koizumi’s talks with Abbas came one day after he met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem and urged the Jewish state to take “rational action” to the crisis, in which Israeli forces are now fighting in Lebanon and Gaza.
In Jerusalem, the Japanese premier stressed that Japan’s assistance to the Palestinians would be made in the form of support for the moderate Abbas.
Japanese officials said Koizumi had no plan to meet any leaders of the Islamist movement Hamas which took the helm of the Palestinian government in March but which continues formally to advocate the destruction of Israel.
“Japanese assistance to the Middle East is different from that of the United States or EU,” Koizumi said. “We are going to support the basis of livelihood of both Israeli and Palestinian people.” On Wednesday, Koizumi announced a Japanese initiative to create a four-party framework between Japan, Israel, the Palestinians and Jordan jointly to develop Jordan Valley areas.
Koizumi also said Tokyo would offer two million dollars to the World Bank for a feasibility study on the possible construction of a canal between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea.
The Middle East has been flung deeper into chaos after Israel launched an assault in Lebanon following the capture by Hezbollah of two soldiers along the Jewish state’s northern border and killed eight others in clashes.
Israeli fighter jets bombed Lebanon’s only international airport and killed 40 civilians in a wave of retaliatory strikes.
At least 75 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have also been killed since Israeli tanks and troops poured into the Gaza Strip on July 5 in a bid to stop Palestinian rocket attacks and secure Corp. Gilad Shalit’s release.
The Japanese premier was traveling to Jordan to visit King Abdullah II later yesterday before flying to Russia on Saturday to attend the Group of Eight summit.
He is the longest serving Japanese premier in three decades and has tried to increase Tokyo’s role on the world stage and the Middle East, sending 600 troops to Iraq on an historic mission for the pacifist nation.
