| Begging your pardon, Junichiro, but this isn't the best time to be standing next to a Paleo leader of any kind. |
Koizumi’s talks with Abbas following a welcome ceremony, comes one day after he met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem and urged the Jewish state to take “rational action” to the escalating regional crisis. Koizumi, conducting his first Middle East tour and the first by a Japanese leader in a decade, will use his meeting with Abbas to announce a fresh package of assistance to the cash-strapped Palestinians, a Japanese source said.
Tokyo, the third largest donor for the Palestinians after the United States and the European Union, insists it will not be used to finance the Hamas-led administration, which is politically and financially boycotted by the West. “I told Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert that Japan’s assistance to the Palestinians will be made in the form of support for Abbas,” Koizumi said during a joint news conference with the Israeli leader on Thursday.
Japanese officials said the premier had no plan to meet any leaders from Hamas which took the helm of the Palestinian government in March but continues to advocate the destruction of the Jewish state. “Japanese assistance to the Middle East is different from that of the United States or EU,” Koizumi said. “We are going to support the basis of livelihood of both Israeli and Palestinian people.”