Mideast peace process – Excerpts of a doorstep between UK Foreign Secretary and Palestinian Finance Minister – UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office press release/Non-UN document

EXCERPTS OF A DOORSTEP BETWEEN JACK STRAW AND PALESTINIAN FINANCE MINISTER (08/02/05)

EXCERPTS OF A DOORSTEP WITH THE FOREIGN SECRETARY, JACK STRAW, AND THE PALESTINIAN FINANCE MINISTER, DR SALAM FAYYAD, IN LONDON ON 8 FEBRUARY 2005

JACK STRAW:
It is a pleasure for me to meet with Dr Fayyad twice in ten days. Dr Fayyad is the Palestinian representative on the steering committee for the London meeting which will be held here under the chairmanship of Tony Blair on 1st March. It is very good to see you here today.

The whole purpose of this meeting is to identify ways in which the international community can better support the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people as Israel withdraws from Gaza and some of the settlements ion the West Bank and so we continue to look forward to the creation of a fully viable state of Palestine.

SALAM FAYYAD:
The London meeting offers us a tremendous opportunity to discuss with our partners in the international community our plans for going forward and get from the international community the support that we so badly need at this very difficult junction. That is our expectation and that is what the London meeting is about. It’s about providing support for the PA going forward.

A good deal of effort has been made towards improving governance in Palestine on the road to ensuring we have firmly in place solid building blocks of a well functioning public finance system. This effort began in summer 2002 and a great deal of progress has been made.

We view it as very important responsibility of ours to do all that can be done in order to establish law and order. We have to build up our capacity which has been decimated over the past few years this requires a lot of work and in fact we are talking about our plans with the international community. We need support to help us rebuild our capacity in the security sphere which is a need for our people first and foremost. I think building up our security forces is absolutely essential to give our own people a sense of security which they very much need but also to give our partners and in the international community at large a sense that all that needs to be done to build up that capacity is being done.