Abbas: ministry of interior force illegal
Palestine, Politics, 1/6/2007

In light of security chaos, more assassinations against our cadres, including children and the failure of security figures to impose law and order, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas conducted alternations within security apparatuses leaders, considering Ministry of Interior's Executive Force as illegal and outer of law unless it immediately be combined in the legal security apparatuses in accordance to early President's decision and the basic law.

Also, US President George W. Bush is seeking to provide Palestinian security forces under the control of President Mahmoud Abbas with "non-lethal material assistance" designed to help them provide security and regulate checkpoints.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday the Bush administration is considering funding "on the order of tens of millions of dollars."

The funds would be used to provide assistance such as vehicles, communication, uniforms and training, with the idea of building up "responsible security forces" to help prevent terror attacks and provide security in Gaza and the West Bank.

They also would help build up Palestinian capacity for regulating checkpoints "so you can keep those passages open, especially in Gaza, which has obvious economic benefits for the Palestinians," McCormack said.

He added that the United States would be working with others in the region, such as Egypt, that "share an interest in seeing those security forces built up as well."

The spokesman said US officials, including David Welch, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, have had initial consultations with Congress, which is charged with authorizing the funds. Those discussions "went well," McCormack said.

"Our primary concern is to make sure that none of these funds in any way are able to be used by Hamas or benefit a Hamas-led government. So here we're being very careful and scrupulous in building in the safeguards" to prevent that from happening, McCormack said.

Palestinian president Abbas's decision to consider the interior ministry forces as illegal, to undermine Hamas supported armed groupings, comes after a long period of political infighting between Hamas and Fatah, which lately turned lately into semi-military conflict between their various groupings.

Previous Stories:
  Palestinians protest Abbas' election call   (12/16/2006)
  Palestinian unity government fail so far   (10/6/2006)
  Palestinians agree to a national unity government   (9/11/2006)

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