Powell wants action plan to help Palestinians
US secretary of state Colin Powell was expecting to win broad approval from Arab, European, Russian and United Nations leaders today on an ‘‘action plan’’ to help the Palestinian people over the next three years.
The plan would set up a schedule for direct assistance to humanitarian and economic programmes that would skirt the Palestinian Authority, which the Bush administration says is corrupt.
The United States already channels about $142m a year (€142m) in aid through the United Nations and the Red Cross and other private groups. In April, Powell pledged an additional 30 million.
The Europeans provide about $9m a year (€9m) in assistance. Unlike US aid, it goes directly to the Palestinian Authority.
Powell hopes future European contributions can be made directly to the people or at least in ways that provide controls against skimming.
Assistant Secretary of State William Burns has set up an international task force on reform with UN, Russian and European Union officials. A deputy, Elizabeth Cheney, followed up last week in London, talking with officials from Norway, Japan, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
A US official said Powell hoped to persuade the other members of the so-called Quartet the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia to work around the authority, but did not intend to level demands.
Through the US Agency for International Development, the United States provides €62m in aid for health care, water system repairs and emergency food. Another €80m is contributed annually to the UN Relief and Works Agency.
Powell and the other leaders are approaching the talks in New York with conflicting agendas. Like the Arabs and Europeans, Powell is calling on Israel to ease up on the Palestinians, but otherwise the Bush administration’s strategy is to defer a resumption of peace talks until there is broad reform within the Palestinian Authority.
This conflict puts the Bush administration at odds with virtually all of its partners in Middle East peacemaking, but solidly in support of Israel as it struggles to end terror attacks and hold Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat accountable.
Powell is due to meet at a mid-town hotel with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, European Union diplomat Javier Solana and Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov. He will then meet separately with foreign ministers Ahmed Maher of Egypt and Marwan Muasher of Jordan.
Afterwards, all the ministers will join in an evening meeting at Annan’s East Side residence.
Three weeks after Bush set out his strategy for peace in the Middle East, envisioning a Palestinian state after the ousting of Arafat and curbs on terror and corruption, the Arabs and Europeans are mobilising to change that approach.
They want a Palestinian state established quickly and Israel pushed off the West Bank, Gaza and out of east Jerusalem to make way for it.
Arab and European leaders couch their approach in terms of a need for political action in response to violence - not to be withheld until attacks on Israel are ended.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday that the focus of the meetings ‘‘is to advance the president’s vision of two states living side by side within secure and recognised borders and continuing to assist the Palestinian people in their efforts to implement reform’’.
