GENEVA — Russia yesterday began edging away from conditions on financial assistance to a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority and Syria said it would urge Arab nations to make up any shortfall if the United States and Europe cut back aid.
European diplomats, who have been engaged in quiet talks with Hamas officials since late last year, held out the hope that the militant Islamic group — shock winners of last week’s Palestinian elections — might moderate its views before aid has to be cut.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice secured agreement from the so-called Quartet in London on Monday that future aid to the PA “would be reviewed … against that government’s commitment to the principles of nonviolence, recognition of Israel and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations.”
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The donors also said current aid could continue until Hamas forms a government and formally takes power.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin — whose country is in the Quartet along with the United States, the European Union and the United Nations — was quoted yesterday as saying that aid to the Palestinians should continue.
“A refusal to help the Palestinian people would be mistaken,” Mr. Putin said at a press conference in Moscow. He also called the Hamas victory “a great blow to American efforts in the Middle East. A very serious blow.”
Syria, meanwhile, said it would press at a meeting of the Arab League in March for Arab countries to make up any shortfall in funding to the Palestinians. Syria is host to Hamas’ exiled chief, Khaled Meshaal.
“The move comes within the framework of the continuous Arab support to the Palestinian people, and the respect of its will and choices,” the Syrian news agency quoted Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa as saying.
Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan, whose group has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide attacks, responded defiantly to Monday’s Quartet statement in an interview with the Associated Press.
“We are looking for alternative [aid] sources, and we will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed,” he said by telephone from Beirut. “We will not accept any conditions from anybody. At the same time, we are ready for dialogue.”
In Europe, officials pointed out that three-quarters of the EU’s annual aid of about $600 million is given directly to special projects now in progress, while the rest is used to pay wages of about 135,000 civil servants and security personnel.
EU representatives have held direct talks with Hamas officials in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since mid-December, even though the union lists Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Initially denied by Javier Solana, the commissioner in charge of the EU’s foreign affairs, the contacts subsequently were authorized provided they were conducted “discreetly” — mainly because of strong opposition by several EU members.
The last mission was led by Veronique de Keyser, a European Parliament member from Belgium, who told of meeting a number of Hamas officials and “militants,” not always knowing their names.
“I found them cautious, moderate and very well-disciplined,” she told a Belgian newspaper.
Her statement notwithstanding, Mr. Solana stressed that in order to benefit from EU funds, Hamas should renounce its “historic charter” and recognize Israel.
“Regardless of the outcome of the Palestinian vote, Europe and the Western world cannot be expected to help the Islamic fundamentalists to rule,” one EU diplomat said.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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