U.S. Eases Boycott Of Palestinian Govt

[Purveyor]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A senior U.S. diplomat met Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday, denting Israel's drive to keep an international boycott of the new Palestinian unity government in place.

Fayyad's meeting with U.S. Consul-General Jacob Walles was the first contact between a U.S. official and a minister in the coalition cabinet formed on Saturday by the Islamist Hamas movement and the rival secular Fatah faction.

Trying to stop any erosion of the diplomatic boycott, Israel canceled a planned meeting with Norway's deputy foreign minister after he held talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, Israeli officials said.

The United States, breaking with Israel, has said it might hold unofficial contacts with non-Hamas ministers. Britain and some other European countries have taken a similar line.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2013504720070320

[ProgressiveMuslim]

1. If the Fatah ministers had an ounce of self-respect

they'd tell the US: Speak to all of us or none of us.

This effort to divide the government is absurd.

[breakaleg]

2. I think it will undermine Fatah more than it will help. When with the US realize that publicly

supporting certain groups in the middle east does them more harm than good? It's as if they don't realize that they are not necessarily well received over there.