Saudi Arabia Agrees With Egypt, Says Hamas Shouldn't Be Cut Off

Bloomberg.com: U.S.


Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia's chief diplomat said an incoming Hamas-led government in the Palestinian territories should continue to be funded, putting the kingdom at odds with the U.S. view that the Islamic group should be cut off.

``We wish not to link the international aid to the Palestinian people to considerations other than their dire humanitarian needs,'' Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said at a news conference in Riyadh, the capital, late today with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Saudi Arabia provides roughly $15 million per month to the Palestinian Authority via the Arab League, and Saudi officials told visiting U.S. diplomats that aid would continue. The money might be channeled directly to the office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to bolster him, a senior U.S. official told reporters traveling with Rice's delegation.

The official said the Saudi government had denied a request from Hamas to visit the kingdom. Hamas, formally the Islamic Resistance Movement, defeated the U.S.-backed Fatah Party led by Abbas in legislative elections last month.

Faisal's comments echoed those from the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Gheit yesterday in Cairo.

Rice wants Arab countries to press Hamas to abandon violence, accept Israel's existence, and endorse previously negotiated agreements between Israel and Palestinian entities. Israel and the U.S. have said they are cutting off direct assistance.

Faisal expressed Saudi Arabia's ``full commitment'' to the Middle East peace effort aimed at creating a Palestinian state.

`No Proof'

Rice met today with Saudi King Abdullah and other senior Saudi officials to discuss Hamas's January victory in parliamentary elections, Iran's nuclear program, and the situation in Iraq.

``There is no proof yet that they are producing atomic weapons,'' Faisal said of Iran. ``They deny this. They've denied it many times to us. They say they need the technology for its own purposes.''

Iran should follow Saudi policy and help make the Middle East ``an area free of atomic weapons,'' he added.

Earlier today, Rice met with democracy activists in Cairo and heard criticism of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government. Rice told reporters that since her last visit in June, ``a lot has happened since, some good, some not good'' in terms of democratic change.

Rice goes next to the United Arab Emirates, which is caught up in a domestic U.S. political squabble over a transaction to take over operations at six U.S. ports.

President George W. Bush is resisting pressure from Democratic and Republican lawmakers who want the transaction stopped because of security concerns.

Bush was made aware of the $6.8 billion sale of London- based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. to DP World, a state-owned business in the UAE, in ``the last several days,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said today. By that time, congressional opposition already was bubbling up.