UN Mideast envoy denies aiding Hamas with Qatar money

The UN envoy for the Middle East peace process today rejected allegations that he tried to funnel USD 20 million to Hamas in the Gaza Strip against Israel's wishes, dubbing them as "crazy" and "baseless".
"It's crazy", UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, told Israeli daily Ha'aretz adding, "those accusations are baseless".
In an unprecedented move, Israel's Channel 2 news yesterday reported that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was looking to declare the UN special coordinator persona non grata and expel him from Israel for supposedly trying to direct USD 20 million to Hamas in Gaza via Qatar, to pay the salaries of government employees there.

Lieberman's aides later confirmed the report.
Serry responded saying he acted with full transparency vis-a-vis the Israeli authorities.
The UN envoy said that two weeks ago he visited Qatar as scheduled and discussed with senior Qatari officials the situation in the Gaza Strip, but not the payroll crisis.

As a result of a dispute with the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership in the West Bank led by President Mahmoud Abbas of the rival Fatah party, thousands of government teachers, doctors, police officers and other workers have not received their salaries in the Gaza Strip.
There have been reports over the past few days that Qatar wants to help solve the payroll crisis.

Serry claimed that a few days ago he received a phone call from Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, who spoke to him informally about the payroll crisis in Gaza, the possibility of receiving Qatari assistance and the potential UN role in facilitating it, Ha'aretz reported.
He reportedly made it clear to Hamdallah that he would only be able to assist if Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas consent to the move.
He also reportedly claimed to have immediately shared this information with the Israeli authorities in the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), who told him Israel was willing for Qatar to send money to buy fuel in order to ease the energy crisis in the Gaza Strip, but not to pay salaries.

Serry was surprised over Lieberman's moves to expel him, saying, "I am perplexed to hear about it first from the media. No Israeli official approached me on this".
Media reports here said that Lieberman has reacted so strongly because the UN envoy ignored requests from both the PA and Israel to serve as a conduit for the funds and that he continued to try "to affect the transfer using other means".
Lieberman's aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said that the foreign ministry is upset with Serry over a series of unbalanced, anti-Israel announcements in the past several weeks.

The Israeli Foreign Minister has today convened a meeting of officials to discuss the possibility of expelling Serry.
But, many in Israel's diplomatic and defence services are against the expulsion move.