Israel stays away, US allows some contact

The decision to allow some contacts marked shift in US policy and a break with Israel, which has vowed to boycott the new government, including non-Hamas ministers.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ruled out resuming talks on Palestinian statehood with President Mahmoud Abbas and urged the international community to shun the government established on Saturday.

Olmert’s cabinet approved his policy, officials said.

Palestinians hope the partnership between Abbas’s secular Fatah faction and Islamist Hamas will stop factional fighting and ease a crippling aid embargo that has increased poverty.

But Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, spokeswoman for the US consulate in Jerusalem, said the year-old US ban on direct aid to the Palestinian government would remain in place until it recognised Israel and renounced violence as demanded by the Quartet of Middle East mediators.

“This must continue to be the measure for any support,” she said. “There’s no change in our assistance policy. But we remain committed to providing assistance to the Palestinian people and we’ll continue to do that through the UN and other organisations.”

Israel has also vowed not to hand over to the unity government tax revenues it has been withholding.

Olmert said his contacts with Abbas would be limited to matters related to “the quality of life of the Palestinian population” in areas under Israel’s control.

“We think that the new government, as it has been declared and presented, limits our ability to conduct a dialogue with … (Abbas) and narrows the range of issues which we might have been able to discuss in the coming period,” Olmert told his cabinet.

–Adam Entous