Quartet backs Abbas

The "quartet" of Middle East peace mediators voiced strong support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday amid signs it is likely to soon ease its ban on direct aid to the Palestinian Authority.
While the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States did not address the matter in a statement, a senior US official said Washington would lift the ban on direct aid to a new emergency Palestinian government.
Abbas last week dissolved the Hamas-led government after Hamas forces routed Fatah in fierce fighting in the Gaza Strip, effectively dividing the Palestinians between a Hamas-ruled Gaza and a West Bank governed by his Fatah movement.
Hamas said Abbas' order amounted to a coup and that Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, remained in power. The quartet imposed the aid ban last year after Hamas defeated Fatah in parliamentary elections. The United States, the European Union and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist group.
The quartet said it would allow direct aid only if Hamas met three conditions that the Islamist movement did not accept: renouncing violence, recognising Israel and respecting past peace deals.
In a statement issued by the State Department, the quartet signalled support for Abbas, a relative moderate who meets the quartet conditions and who has named Salam Fayyad, an economist backed by the United States, to lead an emergency government.
"The Quartet expressed understanding and support for President Abbas' decisions to dissolve the Cabinet and declare an emergency, given the grave circumstances," said the statement, which was released after quartet ministers consulted by telephone on Friday.
"The Quartet recognised the necessity and legitimacy of these decisions, taken under Palestinian law, and welcomed President Abbas' stated intention to consult the Palestinian people at the appropriate time," it added.
In a sign of which way the group is leaning on the aid question, Jacob Walles, the US envoy responsible for dealings with the Palestinians, said Washington and its quartet partners will make announcements next week about lifting the sanctions in place since Hamas came to power in March 2006. "I think ... there won't be any obstacles, economically and politically, in terms of re-engaging with this (Abbas-appointed) government. Yes, they will have full support," US Consul-General Walles told Reuters.
In its statement, the quartet also made clear that it was worried about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, an impoverished coastal strip where aid groups have said conditions could deteriorate rapidly if Israel does not swiftly reopen key border crossings to bring in more supplies.