Thawing Relations
March 21, 2007
The Palestinian cabinet's Deputy Prime Minster Azzam al-Ahmed arrived in Berlin on Wednesday evening along with two other ministers in the new unity government. The three men were invited by Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) and will meet with several party officials during a three-day stay in the German capital.
Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad and Culture Minister Bassam Salhi will accompany Ahmad, who is scheduled to meet, among others, German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul and Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler, both from the SPD. Member of the Palestinian group will also meet with an aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Merkel herself will travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories at the end of the month, a government spokesman said Wednesday in Berlin. During the trip, which will take place from March 31 to April 2, the German leader will also visit Jordan and Lebanon.
"The chancellor would like to get a sense of how this government works, in particular on the question of whether and to what extend the criteria of the international Middle East Quartet are being fulfilled," said government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm.
The German government has announced that it would work with the newly established Palestinian government if it would fulfill the requirements of the Middle East Quartet, which is made up of the EU, the US, the United Nations and Russia, including the recognition of Israel and the renunciation of violence.
Slow defrost
The moves are part of a larger, cautious rapprochement after Hamas and the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were able to clinch a coalition deal last month in a bid to break the international isolation of the territory. A boycott by the EU and the US was triggered when Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by both the EU and the Americans, won elections last January.
The EU began its slow resumption of contact with the new Palestinian government on Tuesday, when Marc Otte, the EU's Middle East envoy, met with Palestinian Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr, an independent member of the cabinet. France, Austria and Belgium have also announced they will meet non-Hamas government officials.
Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt will travel to the Middle East and meet over the weekend with Abbas and members of the new government who do not belong to the Hamas party, a Swedish foreign ministry spokesperson said Wednesday.
United States ends boycott
For its part, the United States made its first contact with the new Hamas-Fatah coalition yesterday, ending a year-long diplomatic boycott of the Palestinian government. Jacob Walles, the US Consul in Jerusalem, met with Fayyed in the West Bank City of Ramallah.
It was the first official meeting between a member of the Palestinian government and a US official since a boycott of the Hamas government was imposed a year ago. However, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said Washington will not recognize the Palestinian cabinet until Hamas recognizes Israel.
The high-level contacts run against the wishes of Israel, which has urged the international community to shun all members of the Palestinian Unity cabinet, which was established on Saturday.