The United States demanded that $50 million in unexpended foreign aid funds for the Palestinian Authority be returned to the United States, which Palestinian Economic Minister Mazen Sonokrot agreed to do. On the loss of foreign aid from the United States and the European Union, Haniyeh commented that: “The West is always using its donations to apply pressure on the Palestinian people.”
Several months after Hamas’ 2006 election victory, Haniyeh sent a letter to US President Bush, in which he called on the “American government to have direct negotiations with the elected government”, offered a long-term truce with Israel, while accepting a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and urged an end to the international boycott, claiming that it would “encourage violence and chaos”. The U.S. government did not respond and maintained its boycott.