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Rice seeks urgent aid to prop up Abbas government

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, December 19, 2006

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration plans to allocate at least $40 million in emergency aid to bolster security forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Officials said the administration has been urged by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to rush aid to Abbas as the ongoing Fatah-Hamas militia war escalates. They said Ms. Rice has determined that Abbas would require immediate U.S. military help to battle superior Hamas forces.

"The feeling in the administration is that Abbas will either fight Hamas to a draw or lose power completely," an official said.

U.S. security envoy to the PA, Gen. Keith Dayton, has sought to enhance Abbas's forces, particularly the Presidential Guards. Dayton has submitted a $42 million plan to expand the Presidential Guards to at least 6,000 troops, something the administration was expected to approve imminently, Middle East Newsline reported.

"General Dayton is working with the security forces, but you can't build security forces overnight to deal with the kind of lawlessness that is there in the Gaza, which largely derives from Hamas's inability to govern," Ms. Rice told Reuters in an interview on Dec. 16. "And their inability to govern, of course, comes from their unwillingness to meet international standards. This is one, I think, the Palestinians are going to have to find a way to resolve and we are trying to support Mahmoud Abbas in doing that."

Ms. Rice did not specify the source of the U.S. military aid to the PA. But she said Dayton was working with "other states in the region" to improve Abbas's forces.

"We're talking tens of millions [of dollars for Abbas]," Ms. Rice said.


Copyright © 2006 East West Services, Inc.

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