A year-old U.S. ban on direct financial aid to the Palestinian government will remain in place despite the formation of a unity administration, a U.S. official said on Sunday. "We're going to continue the judge the new Palestinian government on acceptance of the Quartet's principles. This must continue to be the measure for any support," said Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, spokeswoman for the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem.
"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 U.N. and other organisations," she said, according to Reuters.
The U.S. consulate also said Washington would shun Hamas ministers in the new Palestinian government but will allow contacts with non-Hamas members on a case-by-case basis. "We will continue our policy of not having contacts with members of foreign terrorist organisations," said Schweitzer-Bluhm.
"In terms of individuals who are not members of foreign terrorist organisations, we will not suspend contacts with individual Palestinians soley based on their participation in the unity government but we will make individual decisions based on our evaluation of the situation," she added.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday said he will not work with the new Palestinian government, but promised to maintain limited contacts with President Mahmoud Abbas.
Olmert told his Cabinet that future talks with Abbas will be on humanitarian issues, saying serious peace talks could not take place following Abbas' alliance with Hamas. "We think that the new government as it was founded with this platform, limits our ability to hold a dialogue with the chairman of the Palestinian Authority and limits the scope of the subjects on which we could hold discussions in the coming future," he said.
At the end of the session, the Israeli cabinet voted against the recognition of the new PA government by 19-2 majority, Israel Radio reported.
