CAIRO, May 4 (UPI) -- Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahhar will meet Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Abul Ghait who snubbed him on a previous visit.
Zahhar said Thursday his Hamas-led government will have a clear stance on the Arab peace initiative which was unanimously adopted at the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002 as the only option for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Egyptian officials said Wednesday Abul Ghait will not receive Zahhar, but his office confirmed Thursday that a meeting is being arranged.
Zahhar warned in the meantime that the Palestinian government will not deal in the future with banks that refuse to transfer money to them.
Speaking after talks with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mousa during a stopover in Cairo, Zahhar acknowledged tremendous pressures are placed on banks to prevent them from transferring money gathered for the Palestinians.
"We will not deal in the future with banks which will not help us receive the money," Zahhar said.
The latest Arab summit held in Khartoum decided to continue $50 million worth of Arab financial assistance to the Palestinians after Hamas won general elections and formed the new government.
League officials said Palestinian and Arab banks are reluctant to transfer the money to the Palestinian government out of concern that they would be penalized under a U.S. ruling that bans financial dealings with terrorist organizations.
Zahhar said alternatives are being considered by a delegation from the Palestinian ministry of finance and the League's secretariat general.
He said his government refuses to resort to secret, illegal or non-transparent means to transfer the money.
Zahhar, who stopped in Cairo on his way back to the Palestinian territories after a tour aimed at garnering political and financial support, was snubbed by his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Abul Ghait, who refused to receive him.
