Paris, March 21 (NNN-KUNA) -- Despite European Union reservations about the new Hamas-Fatah national union government, France has said it was in favour of resuming aid to the new Palestinian executive authority, a position that contradicts that of Israel and also differes from that of the United States.
"France is prepared to resume political contacts with those members of the Palestinian government who are not drawn from Hamas," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said at a press briefing Tuesday.
He said that France considered "direct financial aid to the new government should be resumed" and France is "currently defending that position with our European counterparts".
Discussions among the 27 EU nations are ongoing on the subject of aid, which was suspended after the surprise election of Hamas in January 2005.
Already France last week said it would resume contacts between Foreign Ministers and invited the Palestinian Foreign Minister to visit Paris. Failing that, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy vowed to visit his counterpart, Ziad Abu Amro, in Palestine.
Abu Amro is an independent and not from either Fatah or Hamas, which France and its EU partners have been boycotting because Hamas refuses to renounce violence, recognise Israel and adhere to agreements signed by the PLO in 1993.
Hamas argues it cannot renounce violence unless Israel stops attacking it and forcing it to resist and it says it cannot recognise the Israel that is developing as this is not the Israel that is supposed to exist within the 1967 borders in line with earlier accords.
As for the 1993 accords, Hamas says that Israel is constantly violating these accords through its settlement policy, the construction of the separation wall, the ongoing economic stranglehold on the Palestinian economy and the policy of targeted assassination against alleged militants and the destruction of Palestinian property.
Israel's policy towards Jerusalem is also a flagrant violation of the accords signed between the two sides, Hamas maintains, noting that Israel's policy in this area has been internationally condemned.
France on Tuesday adopted a median line with the new Palestinian government, saying it would cooperate with ministers who were not part of Hamas.
Despite the boycott of Hamas for direct aid, the EU says it has tried to maintain indirect humanitarian aid since the Hamas election and sought innovative ways to get aid to the Palestinians, but the EU action, along with a US aid freeze and Israel's refusal to hand over tax duties to the Palestinians, paralysed the government and caused major disruptions to the economy and to the civil service, in particular.
The European aid, estimated at close to one billion euros annually, is vital to the Palestinian executive and it is unlikely the new national union government can survive without a fast influx of fresh cash from the Europeans.