EU urged not to cut aid to Palestinians

Palestinian foreign minister Mahmoud al-Zahar urged the European Union on Sunday not to stop funding the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

Zahar made the appeal ahead of a meeting of foreign ministers of the 25-nation EU on Monday which is expected to approve the EU executive commission's decision to cut off financial aid to the PNA since the new Hamas-led government refused to renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and accept the signed accords with Israel.

Urging the EU to respect the democratic choice of the Palestinian people which gave the radical resistant group Hamas a sweeping victory in the Jan. 25 parliamentary elections, Zahar said in a written statement that cutting aid to the PNA would "of course bring severe harm to the Palestinian people."

It would also encourage the Israeli government policy to suffocate Hamas-led government and escalate military offensives against the Palestinian people, Zahar said.

He also warned that the EU's credit and its strategic ties with the Arab and Muslim world would suffer if it carried out threat to sanction the Palestinians.

The EU, the biggest donor of aid to the Palestinians, gives about 600 million U.S. dollars a year to the PNA.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneya vowed on Saturday not to yield to the Western pressure despite becoming cash-strapped immediately after sworn in on March 29.

"The decision of the West to cut aid is unjust and aimed to blackmail us," Haneya told reporters in Gaza City.

"But they will not force us to make political concessions or to give up our principles," he added.

Israel has halted the monthly transfer of about 50 million U.S. dollars of tax revenues it collects on behalf of the PNA since Hamas' election victory.

The EU commission and the U.S. announced on Friday that they would suspend direct aid to the PNA after Hamas failed to meet their conditions for granting aid.

Source: Xinhua