The EU said it will keep on giving money to the Palestinian authorities despite their new deal with Hamas, an organization which is listed as a terrorist group by the EU.
"The EU looks forward to continuing its support, including through direct financial assistance, for a new Palestinian government that should uphold the principle of non-violence," Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said after the Fatah of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas announced in Qatar an agreement to form a unity government.
The EU is the main donor to the Palestinian Authority and currently provides some 450 million dollars a year in aid meant to help refugees and support state-building measures, such as creating a police force in the West Bank.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slammed the Hamas-Fatah agreement, saying that that if would mean that the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process is over.
The agreement calls for Mahmoud Abbas to serve as an interim Prime Minister of a Palestinian unity government made up of independent figures. The government prepare presidential and parliamentary elections.
"If President Abbas moves to implement what was signed today in Doha, he will abandon the path of peace and join forces with the enemies of peace," Netanyahu said.
"Hamas is an enemy of peace. It’s an Iranian-backed terror organization committed to Israel’s destruction.," he added.
He said Abbas has to choose either a peace pact with Israel or with Hamas, recalling the fact that the Islamist movement had not yet accepted the three minimal requirements demanded of it by the international community: to recognize Israel’s right to exist, abandon terrorism, and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.
Netanyahu said, Hamas "continues to arm itself for even deadlier terrorism."