RAMALLAH: The United States has denied accusations it is pressuring banks to stop dealing with the Palestinian government, whose relations with Washington have been plummeting.
Several Palestinian officials have accused the US of trying to force banks not to deal with transactions linked to the Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank.
“The United States has not requested that foreign donors restrict assistance to the Palestinians, nor has it requested that financial institutions cease transfers to Palestinian Authority (PA) bank accounts,” a US official told AFP late Monday.
“We are aware of media reports suggesting this has occurred. Those reports are incorrect.”
On Sunday, senior Palestinian official Hussein Al-Sheikh charged that Washington was launching a “financial siege” on the PA.
“Major international financial institutions and parties have begun to accede to an American request to impose a tight financial siege on the Palestinian Authority,” he told AFP.
“Washington has asked for financial aid given to the authority to be stopped, and it has also issued a circular to banks not to receive transfers for the authority’s accounts.”
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki has said on local radio that the US was using “all means to press Arab countries to stop financial support for our people.”
Relations between the US and the Palestinians have broken down since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in late 2017.
The Palestinians consider the eastern part of the city their capital and have boycotted the Trump administration since.
In response the US has cut more than $500 million in annual aid to the Palestinians, mostly to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
The cuts have worsened long term financial shortfalls for the PA, which is heavily reliant on international aid.
US denies telling banks to stop working with Palestinians
US denies telling banks to stop working with Palestinians
- Palestinian officials said the US asked banks to stop working with Palestinian Authorities
- The US decreased annual aid to Palestinians by more than $500 million after increasing tensions between the two after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
RSF drones hit civilian sites in Sudan’s North Kordofan
- According to the sources, the strike targeted classrooms at Kordofan University for the second time this week
CAIRO: The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces carried out a drone attack on multiple civilian sites in Al-Ubayyid, the capital of North Kordofan state, in the early hours of Friday, field sources have told Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath.
According to the sources, the strike targeted classrooms at Kordofan University for the second time this week.
The city’s medical supply center and a private home in the Riyadh Al-Salihin neighborhood were also hit.
No civilian casualties were reported, the sources said, though the buildings sustained material damage.
A military source told the two outlets that army ground-based defenses intercepted and shot down about 11 drones involved in the attack on Al-Ubayyid.
The use of drones has escalated in recent months, with both the Sudanese army and the RSF increasingly relying on unmanned aerial systems in their operations.
The RSF has been accused of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure in Kordofan.
Meanwhile, the army has continued to track and strike RSF supply lines in Kordofan and Darfur.
More than 100,000 people have been displaced from the Kordofan region in just over three months, according to the UN, as violence between the army and RSF intensifies with the conflict nearing its third year.
