SPANISH FM MEETS WITH HAMAS

Spanish FM meets Abbas in Jordan 31 minutes ago

AMMAN (AFP) - Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos met with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Amman amid an escalating crisis between Abbas's Fatah party and ruling faction Hamas. The encounter came as Fatah- and Hamas-supporting students clashed in Gaza City and after the formerly dominant Fatah accused Hamas of courting civil war
less than a month after the radical Islamists took power.

With the United States and the European Union both withholding aid from the Hamas-led government, Moratinos told journalists that "Spain has always supported the Palestinian people in difficult times... we will continue our aid. He stressed however that aid would only go "to president Mahmud Abbas, to his office and to humanitarian aid," adding that aid would even
be "increased in certain sectors. Moratinos said the European Union had asked Hamas something very reasonable: renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept international law and signed agreements.

We are not asking for anything extraordinary, we are asking that hopes for peace and stability in the region are maintained."Abbas's advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina struck a conciliatory tone about the brewing crisis with Hamas. All parties respect the law and are preserving the calm. We do not want ill-feeling or rising tension," Abu Rudeina told reporters. We hope this will not
happen.

The latest crisis between Hamas and Fatah began after Abbas vetoed a Hamas government decision to create a new special force of armed militants headed by a wanted radical. The move, the first time Abbas has revoked a decision of the new Hamas-led government, followed US criticism of the security appointment and Israeli threats to target the militant in question.