Saudi rejects Rice on Hamas stand
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-23 09:32

Saudi Arabia's rejection comes a day after Rice was similarly rebuffed by another Arab ally, Egypt, which is a key regional influence on positions toward the Palestinians even though it is not a large donor.

She heads to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday for a meeting with ministers from Gulf countries and was expected to hear the same.

The Palestinian government needs about US$1.8 billion in aid each year and officials in the interim government say it is heading for a financial crisis.

Hamas has so far been unswayed by pressure to change its anti-Israel stance and says threats to stop aid are blackmail.

The United States has sought to isolate Hamas since it won a parliamentary election last month.

It has won backing from most allies, including from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to press the group to reverse its long-held doctrine and look for peace with Israel.

But despite hours-long meetings with regional leaders, Rice's Middle East tour has underscored the distance between the United States and its allies on how hard to press Hamas.

Senior U.S. officials traveling with Rice to lobby against Hamas were at a loss to cite any country that has pledged to the United States it will immediately end aid when the group takes over the government in the next few weeks.

Rice also acknowledged allies diverged from the United States hard line.

"Different countries will have different modalities and how to deal with this. For the United States, Hamas is a terrorist organization. We cannot give funding to a terrorist organization," she said.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are given to Palestinians from Saudi Arabia each year.

One senior U.S. official told reporters the Saudi government was sensitive to support in the wealthy kingdom for Palestinians and could not take a position that could be seen to harm their fellow Arabs.

"In the political context, they don't want it to backfire on them," said the official, who asked for anonymity because he was explaining another government's position.