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Pitfalls Await Quartet Plan to Aid Palestinians
(Reuters) Adam Entous - Plans by Middle East mediators to avert a Palestinian financial collapse will likely take weeks to finalize, as Western diplomats noted U.S. objections to including salary payments as part of the new aid program. One of the diplomats working on the mechanism said he did not expect the new Quartet program to be up and running before the end of June. As currently envisaged, a European-backed plan to set up a trust fund for aid through the office of Mahmoud Abbas would, at most, pay salaries to health and education workers, only a quarter of the PA's 165,000 workforce. But U.S. officials recently told Abbas that Washington opposed paying any salaries, even through his office. David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said, "A Hamas government that is sworn to destroy its neighbor has no claim or entitlement upon international funds and the U.S. will not back paying regular salaries and have business as usual."