U.S. ends embargo on Palestinian Authority in move to bolster Fatah

WASHINGTON: The United States has ended a 15-month economic and political embargo of the Palestinian Authority in a bid to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas and the new Fatah-led emergency government he has established in the West Bank as a counterweight to Hamas-controlled Gaza.

The U.S. decision Monday freed tens of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians that had been frozen since the Hamas victory in legislative elections in early 2006. The European Union similarly announced plans to resume direct aid to the Palestinians, while Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said his country would release to Abbas Palestinian tax revenues that Israel has withheld since Hamas took control of the Palestinian Parliament.

But in siding so firmly with Abbas, the Bush administration steered into new territory in its dealings with the Palestinians, as it essentially threw its support behind the dismantling of a democratically elected government.

Abbas's decision to strip Hamas of its representation in the National Security Council to form a new emergency government has already kindled a legal battle over whether Abbas has overstepped boundaries laid out in the Palestinian Constitution.

The American moves amount to a major step toward what some call a "West Bank first" strategy in which money, aid and international political recognition would be heaped upon the West Bank, leaving Gaza to be ruled by Hamas, largely as its own fief.

But Middle East experts said the Palestinian Constitution might allow Abbas' emergency government to remain in power for only 60 days, and Hamas, which won the last legislative elections, has indicated that it will not agree to new elections on Abbas's timetable.

"We are going to support President Abbas and what he wants to do," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in announcing the change in policy. She said the United States would work to "restructure" and unfreeze $86 million in aid that was originally set out to help Abbas build up his security forces.

By diplomatic standards, the American response to the upheaval in the Palestinian territories has come about at lightning speed.

It was less than a week ago that Hamas gunmen routed rival Fatah forces in Gaza, and took control over Fatah-run outposts on the teeming strip on the Mediterranean. Abbas called it a coup, dissolved the national unity government and announced a new cabinet made up of his allies and located in the West Bank, where Fatah remains strong.

At least for now, the United States and Europe appear in agreement that perhaps the only way to salvage some advantage from the Hamas victory in Gaza is to bolster Abbas in the West Bank, in order to provide Palestinians there and in Gaza with a preview of what life could be like with a pro-Western government in charge.

Rice, in response to a question at a news conference on Monday, said she considered Abbas's new government to be legitimate. "I think we will leave to the Palestinians issues of how they work through their own constitutional issues," she said. "Our view, very strongly, is that what President Abbas has done is legitimate and it is responsible."

But Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, said the American move to back Abbas "looks suspiciously like there's an effort afoot to reimpose single-party rule on the Palestinian body politic."

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak took over as defense minister on Tuesday, an appointment that restored the job to a man with solid defense credentials at a time of heightened security concerns on Israel's southern and northern borders, The Associated Press reported from Jerusalem.

Barak, a former military chief who is Israel's most decorated soldier, takes over from Amir Peretz, a former union chief with little military experience whose handling of the flawed war in Lebanon has been widely criticized.

Barak was elected last week to head the Labor Party, consolidating his political comeback after a humiliating election defeat in 2001 ended his brief tenure as prime minister.