Mideast Quartet envoy threatens to quit

WASHINGTON, Mar 15: The envoy for international mediators in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, James Wolfensohn, today threatened to quit because his mandate and backing were unclear after Hamas won an election.

Wolfensohn, the former World Bank head, had been charged by the Quartet brokers -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- with raising funds for Palestinians after last year's Israeli pullout from Gaza.

But following the January parliamentary election victory of Islamic militant group Hamas, the mediators have differed over Wolfensohn's role as the United States pushes to limit his work and diplomats debate provoking a financial crisis which could discredit Hamas, officials familiar with the discussions say.

The Quartet has banned any Wolfensohn contact with the anti-Israel militant group and threatened to cut off aid to a Hamas-led Government unless it changes policies to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace accords.

But the envoy complained the mediators have failed to make clear what he should do instead, because they are undecided about how funds can now be channeled to Palestinians for such humanitarian needs as schools and hospitals.

''The Quartet itself must continue, but the role of a disenfranchised leader of that Quartet does not seem to me to be a particularly attractive thing to spend your life doing,'' Wolfensohn said at a US congressional hearing in answer to a question about his future. ''And so I am considering (leaving) -- but not yet decided.'' ''If you were in a job where it was unclear what the purpose of that job was, and what the backing that you had was, and who had the responsibility ... you would probably wonder ... if that was the thing you wanted to do,'' he added.

Wolfensohn's aides said this week he might leave his post at the end of next month unless he was given a clear mandate.

VAID OR CHAOS?

Wolfensohn says the Palestinian Authority faces financial collapse unless aid is continued because it has a monthly budget shortfall of about 130 million dollars. The envoy said he feared chaos in the Palestinian territories because the Quartet's indecision meant there would be too little time to establish a way of delivering aid without coordinating with the Hamas-led government.

''If you have a million kids on the street from schools, with no schools to go to, if there are no health facilities, and if the basic framework of the Palestinian territories breaks down, it's hard to imagine that you're going to have peace,'' he said.

''If you don't pay the civil servants, who themselves support 900,000 people, I'm afraid the frustration would reach a level where you couldn't contain it,'' he added.

Some US officials want to squeeze a Hamas-led Government so that it cannot provide services such as working sewers in the hope it will turn Palestinians against the group.

Wolfensohn said that while the main opposition party Fatah, which still holds the presidency, also advocated this tactic, he believed it would backfire.

''I think that they are more likely to have Palestinians come behind them than throw them out,'' he said.

REUTERS