EU ministers offer hope to Palestine

EU foreign ministers are to discuss establishing official contacts with a new Hamas-led Palestinian Authority when they meet in Brussels on Friday (15 September).

After six months of Hamas rule - during which EU budgetary assistance has been frozen and high-level contacts suspended - ministers will be under pressure to respond positively to the formation of a Palestinian national unity government, expected to take office today (14 September).

Under an EU-backed deal the government will still be led by Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh, but will include the Fatah movement of President Mahoud Abbas.

EU diplomats hope that the formation of the new government will allow Hamas to meet international demands that the group renounce violence, recognise Israel and accept commitments made by previous Palestinian governments.

"We hope that we can re-engage," said an official, "but it is not clear what the terms of the deal mean…will it mean the renunciation of violence or just a cessation?"

But ministers are unlikely to agree to resume direct budgetary assistance or high-level contacts before consulting their counterparts in the Quartet - the UN, US and Russia.

Diplomats said that they were now waiting to see the US position, which many expect to be tougher than that of the EU’s member states.

But while some officials sought to play down suggestions that differences between the EU and US would be allowed to emerge, others said that the previous six months of isolating Hamas had backfired and a new policy was needed. The Quartet is expected to meet in New York in the middle of next week.

EU foreign ministers are to discuss establishing official contacts with a new Hamas-led Palestinian Authority when they meet in Brussels on Friday (15 September).