Palestinian officials appealed for international cooperation to ease the economic crisis sparked by Israel's clampdown on violence in the Palestinian territories, UN officials said Wednesday, February 21.
The appeal came at a seminar in Vienna, at which UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reiterated a warning that the violence threatens the Palestinian Authority's ability to function.
Key Palestinian officials were unable to attend the Vienna seminar due to travel restrictions, a fact Annan said he regretted.
The chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Ibra Deguene Ka, said that the recent violence had had a "disastrous effect" on the Palestinian economy.
Palestinians "now (have) to struggle for their survival rather than work for long-term development and prosperity," he said at the two-day Vienna seminar on aid to the Palestinians, which started on Tuesday, February 20.
"The international community must become more aware of the increasing difficulties confronting the Palestinian economy and of the precarious living conditions of thousands of Palestinians," he said.
"Improvement of those living conditions, the establishment of cooperative relationships and business partnerships throughout the region and the promotion of regional development (are) the only foundations for a peace that would benefit all the people of the region, Arab and Israeli," he said.
In an address read out to the Vienna seminar, Annan "expressed regret" that key Palestinian officials had not been able to attend due to travel restrictions and border closures.
Palestinian Minister of Economy and Trade Maher Masri had been due to attend the two-day Vienna meeting, which started Monday.
Annan warned last week that Israel's economic blockade of the West Bank and Gaza are depriving the Palestinian Authority (PA) of resources and aggravating "the serious economic and social crisis in the occupied territories."
He reiterated in his Vienna address that he was "concerned about the capacity of the Palestinian authority to continue to function." — (AFP, Vienna)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
