Hamas ministers take charge of their posts

Gaza City: Hamas's new Cabinet ministers started moving into their offices yesterday as Western nations began following through on their threats to cut off aid to the Palestinian government if the group does not moderate.

Hamas, which won January 25 Palestinian elections in a landslide, has refused Western demands to renounce violence, recognise Israel and accept previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. The United States and European Union list Hamas as a terror group.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swore in the 24-member Hamas Cabinet on Wednesday night in a dual ceremony in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank city of Ramallah that was connected by a video hookup.

Many of the Hamas ministers are not allowed to travel between the two territories because of Israeli travel bans on the militant group.

Yesterday, Said Siyam took over the powerful Interior Ministry from Nasser Yousuf, an Abbas ally. The ministry controls many of the Palestinian security forces, though some were transferred to the office of Abbas, a moderate from the Fatah Party who was elected separately last year.

"We've had elections and we are committed to the results," Yousuf said after he turned his office over to Siyam. "This is a peaceful handover of power."

Hamas's assumption of power could cause an immediate financial crisis for the Palestinian National Authority, which is deeply dependent on foreign aid.

Immediately after the new Cabinet was sworn in on Wednesday, Canada announced it was cutting off its donations to the Palestinian National Authority.

The United States said it was in the midst of a wide review of its Palestinian aid programmes and would decide soon what programmes to freeze. "The principle is very clear. We're not going to fund a Hamas-led government, provide funding to a Hamas-led government," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday. "But we are going to look at what we can do to increase humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people and what mechanisms we can use to do that, to make certain that the money is not indeed supporting the Hamas-led government."

Group to continue armed struggle

Hamas supreme leader Khalid Mesha'al said yesterday the Islamist movement which heads the new Palestinian government will continue to lead its armed struggle against Israel while in power.

"We have no other choice but to link power with resistance. Resistance is a strategic choice," he said at the opening of a conference in Beirut.

Key Facts: PNA's financial problems

• Canada, which gives $21 million (about Dh77 million) a year to the Palestinian National Authority to fund aid projects, suspended aid to the Authority on Wednesday.
• The US said its review of aid programmes for the Palestinians was nearing completion. US food and medical assistance will continue. But Washington ordered all US diplomats and contractors to cut off contacts with Palestinian ministries, including independents and technocrats in the new Hamas government.
• Last month the US asked the Authority to return $50 million in aid to prevent it falling into Hamas hands. Since 1993, the Palestinians have received more than $1.5 billion from the US, which had budgeted $234 million in assistance to Palestinians in 2006.
• Arab foreign ministers renewed a pledge to give the Palestinians $50 million a month and left open the possibility of giving more later if the Palestinians need it.