Sunday, March 25, 2007

Sweden joins other European nations in show of support for Palestinian coalition

SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer

March 24, 2007 1:05 PM

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Sweden joined several other European countries in a show of support for the new Hamas-Fatah coalition, dispatching its foreign minister for talks Saturday with his Palestinian counterpart despite Israel's call for a diplomatic boycott.

In Gaza, Fatah supporters clamored for revenge against the Islamic militant Hamas, as they buried the fourth victim of factional fighting this week. The renewed violence, which also claimed the life of a 4-year-old boy caught in crossfire, raised concerns that the power-sharing deal between the rivals might not hold.

Last week, Hamas and the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formed a new government, replacing a Hamas Cabinet that had been shunned by the world because of Hamas' violently anti-Israel ideology.

The new coalition's platform is more moderate than that of its predecessor. It calls for setting up a Palestinian state in the lands Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast War, implying recognition of the Jewish state. However, it still falls short of international conditions for acceptance, such as explicit recognition of Israel and renunciation of violence.

Abbas has said the coalition is the only way to avert civil war, and has urged the international community to end its boycott. More than 140 Palestinians were killed in factional fighting in the past year.

Since the formation of the new government, several countries have announced they would deal with its non-Hamas members, and a U.S. diplomat has met with Finance Minister Salam Fayyad.

The Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, was to meet later Saturday with Abbas and others at Abbas' West Bank headquarters.

Bildt also planned to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and members of the Israeli parliament. Israel has urged the international community to shun all members of the new government, and said it will limit talks with Abbas to humanitarian issues.

Norway, a major donor to the Palestinians, was the first country to lift sanctions against the Palestinian Authority. Norway's deputy foreign minister Raymond Johansen met earlier this week with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, becoming the first high-ranking Western official to do so.

Russia and France have said sanctions against the Palestinian Authority should be lifted.

In Gaza, meanwhile, hundreds of Fatah supporters clamored for revenge against Hamas. They marched in the funeral of Arafa Nofal, a pro-Fatah security man, whose bullet-riddled body was found outside the home of a Hamas-allied family late Friday, hours after he was kidnapped, security officials said.

Nofal's family carried his bruised body, wrapped in Fatah's yellow flag and a Palestinian flag, through the streets of Gaza City. ''The response is coming, the response is coming,'' shouted the mourners, including dozens of gunmen.

AP-WS-03-24-07 1559EDT

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