THE EU/ MIDDLE EAST: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas warned international donors yesterday that they face a "race against time" to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the Middle East.
He also warned of an "explosion of anger" among Palestinians if there was not a rapid move to restore the flow of international aid to the Palestinian Territories.
"Life will be frozen and there will be an explosion of anger and this would lead to a chaotic situation of which we cannot foresee the results," Mr Abbas told journalists following a speech made to MEPs at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
"We are waiting, but we hope that we do not have to wait too long. We are in a race against time and, therefore, we have to be swift in the steps we undertake in order to avoid this catastrophe."
Mr Abbas's speech was made a day after EU foreign ministers discussed setting up a mechanism that could be used to restart the flow of aid to the Palestinians. The initiative follows a decision by the quartet (US, EU, Russian and the UN) to halt aid payments routed through or to the Palestinian Authority following Hamas's assumption of power in March. The quartet halted direct aid to the authority because Hamas refused to renounce violence and respect the right of Israel to exist.
The EU, which has been charged with developing the financial mechanism, said it hoped to be able to get the new mechanism up and running sometime in June.
Mr Abbas said it was also critical that Israel release up to $200 million of tax and customs revenue that it has collected on behalf of the Palestinian people but refused to hand over.
Israel halted the payments to the authority when Hamas came to power and has not yet signalled if it will resume the payments through the new mechanism created by the quartet.
Meanwhile, Mr Abbas also said he would resume talks with Hamas in the next few days in an effort to make it amend its platform.
Asked if he had heard of rumours that he could face an assassination attempt, Mr Abbas said his welfare was in the hands of God.
"If I sacrifice my life for peace then this sacrifice will not be too expensive," he added.