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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Gaza agency working with Blair seized by Hamas |
| 2008-06-06 |
| Hamas has seized control of the Palestinian water agency that is spearheading Middle East envoy Tony Blair's signature project in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Western officials said on Thursday. Hamas's takeover of the Palestinian Water Authority in Gaza cements the group's control over the territory and could cast doubt on the future of the North Gaza Sewage Treatment Works project -- a centrepiece of an economic package touted by Blair to try to bolster the chances of a peace deal this year. The seizure comes ahead of a planned tender by the Water Authority for building a water treatment plant, and amid delicate negotiations with Israel on bringing critical building supplies into Gaza, which Hamas Islamists seized a year ago. An official with the World Bank, which is coordinating the project, said construction was expected to move forward as planned because the Water Authority officials involved work out of a separate office and still report to President Mahmoud Abbas's Western-backed government in the occupied West Bank. "There are, as yet, no adverse implications for the project to proceed," a Blair spokesman said. "We will continue to monitor the situation carefully." Gazans view the project as urgent -- last year, five people drowned in a wave of raw sewage from a plant in northern Gaza. Israel had argued that equipment needed to repair the sewage system could be used to make rockets that are fired into Israel. The former British prime minister is the special envoy to the Palestinians from the Quartet of international powers. Hamas officials had no immediate comment. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Since Blair wasn't inside, no popcorn. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-06-06 06:17 |