A step forward

It took almost a year for the Palestinian unity government to materialize. Although the process was beset with setbacks, the establishment of the unity government will have implications for the Palestinians' domestic affairs, foreign policy and the resumption of the Middle East peace process.

The coalition government is symbolic of Palestinian national unity. At a time when the Palestinians have yet to realize their national liberation, the infighting between Hamas and Fatah is a tragedy for the nation. Statistics show that more than 10 armed conflicts broke out between the two blocs, killing over 130 people, since Hamas took office last year. The inception of the unity government is a major step toward achieving reconciliation between the two rivals.

The national unity government will open the door to more foreign aid. Since the Hamas takeover, the Palestinians have been in a serious crisis caused by the economic sanctions imposed by Israel, the United States and the EU. The humanitarian assistance provided by the international community and nongovernmental organizations via Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was too minimal to make any difference. Some assistance from Arab and other Islamic countries arrived, but others were only empty promises. With the new national unity government in power, the external sanctions may eventually be lifted. Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, who maintains close ties with the United States, is expected to help break the impasse.

The announcement of the unity government created a good atmosphere for the summit of the League of Arab States (LAS) and could help resume the long-frozen Middle East peace talks. The LAS summit was to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 28. One of the most important topics to be discussed was restoring the Middle East peace process based on the Beirut Declaration signed at the 14th LAS summit in March 2003. Proposed by Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, crown prince of Saudi Arabia, the declaration called on Israel to completely withdraw from the Arab territories it occupied, accept a sovereign independent Palestinian state in the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital and achieve a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. The Arab countries, for their part, affirmed that they would enter into a peace agreement with Israel to normalize bilateral relations.

Recently, positive signs have emerged in the Middle East peace process. "Moderate" countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan urged the Arab world to seize the opportunity to resolve the Palestinian issue at an early date and take common steps to further implement the Beirut Declaration. While Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni stressed that Israel would not fully accept the initiative, especially the terms on Palestinian refugees, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indicated on March 11 that Israel would treat the declaration seriously, signaling a switch to a more flexible approach.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to conduct a flurry of diplomatic moves before the LAS summit in Riyadh. According to media reports, she was due to visit Egypt on March 25 to discuss resuming the Middle East peace process with representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Before that, she was to head to Israel and the Palestinians for bilateral consultations. She is also scheduled to pay another visit to Egypt in April to attend a joint session of the four Arab countries and the so-called "Quartet of World Powers," namely the United States, the EU, Russia and the UN. If everything goes well, the Middle East peace process will hopefully be rehabilitated.