By NNN-KUNA,
United Nations : John Holmes, UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator has welcomed former US President Jimmy Carter’s decision to meet Khaled Meshaal, leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, if that will help break the deadlock in the peace process.
“Obviously, anything which will help to produce some political progress will be extremely welcome. If Jimmy Carter can achieve that by talking to Hamas, why not,” Holmes told a press conference here Monday. The 83-year-old ex-president has embarked on a nine-day tour of the Middle East that will take him to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
The US and Israel are opposed to Carter’s meeting with Hamas which they have been trying to isolate as a terrorist organisation.
The question of whether the UN would hold talks at the political level with Hamas is a slightly different one, he noted.
“On the humanitarian side, we’ve always made clear that we will talk to Hamas at the technical level when we need to do that, to make sure humanitarian operations can function in Gaza,” he explained.
Holmes convened the press conference to brief reporters on his visits last week to the GCC countries to create long-term partnerships and to channel their humanitarian assistance through the UN system rather than bilaterally with the needy countries.
“The encouraging message was that they (GCC countries) were recognising this to an increasing extent. I am reasonably optimistic that over time these kinds of discussions will bear fruit in the form of better partnerships in more multilateral channeling of resources from these countries to the international humanitarian system,” he said.
“I am not expecting instant results right now. It is not that kind of partnership that we are seeking,” he added.