Saudi Arabia to Aid Palestinian Gov't

Saudi Arabia King Abdullah, center, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, 3rd left, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, 3rd right, and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, 2nd right, applause following their meeting where the two Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah reached an agreement in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, late Thursday Feb. 8, 2007. Others are unidentified. The rival factions signed a power-sharing accord aimed at ending months of bloodshed Thursday, agreeing that the Islamic militant group Hamas would head a new coalition government that would "respect" past peace agreements with Israel. (AP Photo/Suhaib Salem, pool) (Suhaib Salem - AP)

CAIRO, Egypt -- Saudi Arabia put its credibility on the line by hosting a high-profile summit of rival Palestinian leaders. Now, with a deal reached, it wants to ensure the Palestinian government's survival and convince the U.S. there can be peace with Israel.

Neither task will be easy. Two days of intense negotiations _ held in a palace overlooking the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site in Mecca _ were not enough to push the militant Hamas group to meet U.S. and Israeli demands it recognize Israel and explicitly renounce violence.

Instead, under the agreement announced Thursday, Hamas gave only a vague promise to "respect" past peace deals with Israel as it leads a new coalition government with its rival Fatah, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Both sides clearly recognized the need for the support of Saudi Arabia, a top U.S. ally, to ensure the agreement succeeds. Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal lavished praise on Saudi King Abdullah, who oversaw the ceremony announcing the accord.

Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader who as prime minister will assemble the new Cabinet, even compared Abdullah's peacemaking skills to those of the Prophet Muhammad. He recalled the story of how Muhammad resolved a dispute between Arab tribes over who would have the honor of carrying a sacred black stone to place it in the Kaaba's wall: Muhammad spread his cloak under the stone so that members of each tribe could participate in lifting it.

"History repeats itself as Saudi Arabia and your Majesty ... placed the cloak of reconciliation before your Palestinian brothers to put an end to cruel and hard days they lived," Haniyeh said.

Saudi Arabia quickly moved to bolster the new Palestinian government, promising $1 billion in aid, according to Haniyeh adviser Ahmed Youssef. The money will be a major help for Palestinians, who have been suffering under an international financial boycott imposed since Hamas came to power a year ago.

The kingdom will also be part of the effort of "marketing the agreement to the international community," said Abdel-Rahman Zaydan, a member of the Hamas delegation in Mecca.

Abbas asked Saudi Foreign Minister Saudi al-Faisal to sound out whether the Americans would accept the Hamas promise to respect the past accords, a Fatah delegate said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

American and Israeli acceptance of the new government is key to lifting the financial boycott and opening the door to resuming peace negotiations.

Saudi Arabia is likely to urge the U.S. to accept the deal. The kingdom has increasingly underlined the urgency of progress in the Arab-Israeli peace process to defuse the growing tensions in the Mideast, fueled by the Iraq crisis. Saudi Arabia fears those tensions _ particularly Sunni-Shiite animosity _ could explode and spill over into its territory.

Its prestige as a powerbroker in the region is also at stake. The kingdom usually follows a policy of behind-the-scenes checkbook diplomacy. But it threw off that tact to hold the highly publicized Palestinian summit.

If the Mecca agreement fails, many fear it could spark an outright Palestinian civil war after months of fighting between Fatah and Hamas gunmen that has killed dozens of people.

Past high-profile summits by Saudi Arabia have not yielded much success.

In October, Iraqi Shiite and Sunni religious leaders met in the same royal palace in Mecca in a bid to stop sectarian bloodshed between the two Muslim sects. In a religious edict they signed, the leaders pledged to never again spill a Muslim's blood. Since then, thousands of Iraqis have been killed in sectarian violence.

In December 2005, the kingdom hosted leaders of some 58 Muslim nations to sign a pledge to introduce political reforms pushed by the Bush administration as part of its strategy to combat terrorism. That pledge never materialized.

In pushing the Palestinian accord, Saudi Arabia must also navigate the complicated diplomatic currents of the Middle East and ensure other Arab countries are on board _ something that is not clear.