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Quartet backs Palestinian efforts | |
(30 minutes later) | |
The US and the three other members of the so-called quartet of Mid-East mediators have endorsed the idea of a Palestinian national unity government. | |
The US, EU, Russia and the UN said they would boost indirect aid through a channel bypassing the current Hamas-led Palestinian government. | |
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is seeking to replace the Hamas government with one including his Fatah faction. | |
Hamas's enmity towards Israel has led to curbs on aid to the territories. | |
The quartet's announcement followed talks at the UN in New York and a meeting between Mr Abbas and US President George W Bush. | |
"The quartet welcomes the efforts of [Mr] Abbas... in the hope that the platform of such a government would reflect quartet principles and allow for early engagement," the quartet's joint statement said. | |
It also agreed to extend and expand a temporary international mechanism to channel aid to the Palestinians bypassing Hamas. | |
'Man of peace' | |
At their talks, Mr Bush described Mahmoud Abbas as a "man of peace" and added that achieving peace in the Middle East was one of the great objectives of his presidency. | |
Today we go to the employment offices like beggars. We go to the welfare associations like beggars. Even our own sense of self-worth has been lost Ibrahim al-ToulGaza carpenter Sanctions prolong Gazan despair | Today we go to the employment offices like beggars. We go to the welfare associations like beggars. Even our own sense of self-worth has been lost Ibrahim al-ToulGaza carpenter Sanctions prolong Gazan despair |
"I fully understand that in order to achieve this vision, there must be a leader willing to speak out and act on behalf of people who yearn for peace, and you're such a leader, Mr President," he said at a joint news conference in New York. | |
"Our government wants to work with you, so that you're capable of delivering the vision that so many Palestinians long for, and that is a society in which they can raise their children in peace and hope." | |
Mr Abbas praised Mr Bush's speech to the General Assembly on Tuesday, when he advocated a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict. | |
"You are the first American president to have spoken of the vision of two states," he said. | |
He also said that Palestinians were in "dire need" of US help. | |
Diplomatic momentum | Diplomatic momentum |
There are many leaders at the UN who think the moment has come to muster a renewed diplomatic effort to try to get Palestinians and Israelis back on the path to peace, says BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus. | |
There is an emerging consensus that the Arab-Israeli dispute is not just another regional crisis and that it is the epicentre of global instability, our correspondent adds. | |
The goals would be both practical and diplomatic - an effort to alleviate suffering among the Palestinians, and an effort to create some political horizon, some realisable goal that would move the various parties forward, he says. | |