Quartet agrees on ways to get aid to Palestinians

[Phx_Dem]

NEW YORK - Members of the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers, which is meeting at the United Nations in New York, agreed Tuesday to back a "temporary international mechanism" to channel aid to the Palestinians for a trial period to ease the financial squeeze on the new government
following the election of Hamas.

The Quartet members - the European Union, United Nations, U.S. and Russia - reached a "silent agreement" to establish a trust fund that will pay the salaries of Palestinian civil servants through the office of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

"The thrust of the statement is that the international community is still trying to respond to the needs of the Palestinian people," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a news conference at the United Nations with other quartet members.

"It is to provide assistance to the Palestinian people so they do not suffer deprivation," she said.

....

The initiative is meant to bypass the Hamas government and pay the salaries of 165,000 civil servants who have yet to receive payments since March. The decision stems from a realization by Quartet members that a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian Authority must be averted


http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/714085.html