In what appears to be another effort to bolster the standing of the Palestinian delegation currently negotiating here with Israel, the United States has announced it will make up to $14 million available for job creation programs and other projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In announcing the aid Tuesday, the State Department said it was “encouraged by the resumption of the bilateral negotiations” and believes the aid package “will help promote progress in these talks.”
The announcement is seen here as the latest attempt to provide the Palestinian negotiators with concrete dividends for returning to Washington, in order to strengthen them against rejectionists at home, such as the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement.
The announcement came as the Palestinians and other Arab parties to the peace talks agreed to continue this round of negotiations with Israel for at least another week.
The Israeli-Palestinian talks appeared finally to be making progress this week, as the negotiators tackled some substantive issues including the interim agreement for Palestinian self-government, water and land rights, and humanitarian affairs.
Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi, in a fairly upbeat briefing for reporters Wednesday, said that the talks had reached a “very difficult phase” because the negotiators were now dealing with some “critical and central” issues that would take time and persistence.
Later in the day, though, Ashrawi was quoted as saying that the Palestinians were disappointed with the discussions that had taken place on human rights concerns in the territories and that the Palestinians would not participate in further talks on the issue until next week.
The U.S. assistance program for the Palestinians will be funded by the Agency for International Development and “will reflect priorities identified by Palestinians,” the State Department said in a statement.
The program is intended to promote job creation on projects including road construction, sewage treatment facilities and schools.
“Our goal,” the statement said, “is to begin to alleviate current economic problems and to create infrastructure on which the long-term economic future of the territories can be built.”
The United States is encouraging other countries to begin similar aid programs in the context of the peace process.
In Rome, where the multilateral working group on Middle East economic development held meetings this week, there were indications that additional aid could be expected from the European Community and separately from Spain and Italy.
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