US President announces 400 million aid package to Palestine by Zuzana Zelenakova

In yet another attempt to settle the situation in the Middle East US President Barrack Obama announced $400 million dollar aid package to Palestinians. The promise came as a result of the latest meeting between Barack Obama and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas at the White House. According to the White House officials, the money will be used to secure access to drinking water, to execute infrastructure projects and also for schools and housing. Obama pledged “full involvement” of the United States in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said he expects a “significant progress” by the end of the year. Mahmoud Abbas came to Washington after t! he situation in the Middle East has been escalated by a deadly Israeli raid on a flotilla of boats trying to break through the Israeli blockade on the Gaza strip. The ships were carrying aid and activists to Gaza. The incident occurred on May 31. Palestinian President appealed to Barack Obama to continue with peace efforts, however, Israeli-Palestinian indirect proximity talks handled by the US are now seriously threatened by boiling emotions over the raid. Gaza has been an object of Israeli and Egyptian blockade since 2007, when the Palestinian Civil War intensified considerably and Mahmoud Abbas excluded Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement), the militant organization that governs Gaza, from the newly formed government. As Israel claims it sustains the blockage in order to prevent the smuggling of explosives and arms to Hamas. Israeli government is under international pressure to allow more fluent transport of nonmilitary goods through the blockade. “We, and I think ! President Abbas agrees with this, recognize that Israel should! not hav e missiles flying out of Gaza into its territories,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday. “And so there should be a means by which we are able to stop the flow of arms that could endanger Israel’s security.” “At the same time, we’re doing so in a way that allows the people in Gaza to live out their aspirations and their dreams both for themselves and their children,“ he added.

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by Zuzana Zelenakova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

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