CAIRO: The Arab League has pledged to pay $100 million a month to the Palestinian Authority to plug the gap left when Israel blocked tax transfers earlier in the year.
“We confirm that Arab countries will support the Palestinian state’s budget... (to) resist the political and financial pressure it faces,” the League said Sunday following a meeting in Cairo.
Israel collects taxes on behalf of the PA, but withheld $138 million in transfers in February over Palestinian payments to political prisoners jailed for attacks against Israelis.
The Arab League’s move comes as the Trump administration prepares to unveil a much-touted “Deal of the Century” for peace between the Palestinians and Israel in the coming months.
The Palestinian leadership, which has boycotted Washington over a series of moves including recognizing the bitterly disputed city of Jerusalem as capital of Israel, says it can no longer trust the United States as a broker.
The Arab League said the deal “will not succeed in achieving long-lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.”
The peace plan is being developed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose close ties to right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have heightened Palestinian suspicions.
Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Arab League pledges $100 million to Palestinians, rejects Trump’s ‘deal’
Arab League pledges $100 million to Palestinians, rejects Trump’s ‘deal’
- Israel withheld the money over Palestinian payments to political prisoners
- Palestinian leadership boycotted Washington after they recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel
Iran close to deal with China to buy supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles
- Giant aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford docks in Crete en route to Middle East
LONDON: Iran is close to a deal with China to purchase supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, as the US deploys a vast naval force near the Iranian coast ahead of possible strikes.
The CM-302 missiles have a range of about 290 kilometers and are designed to evade shipborne defences by flying low and fast. Their deployment would significantly enhance Iran’s strike capabilities and pose a threat to US naval forces in the region, two weapons experts said.
“It’s a complete gamechanger if Iran has supersonic capability to attack ships in the area,” said Danny Citrinowicz, a former Israeli intelligence officer and now senior Iran researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a think tank in Israel. “These missiles are very difficult to intercept.”
It is not known how many missiles are involved in the potential deal, how much Iran has agreed to pay, or whether China would go through with the agreement given heightened tensions in the region.
“Iran has military and security agreements with its allies, and now is an appropriate time to make use of these agreements,” an Iranian foreign ministry official said.
Meanwhile the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest warship, has reached the US naval base of Souda Bay on the Mediterranean island of Crete en route to the Middle East.
Washington has more than a dozen warships in the region: the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, nine destroyers and three combat ships.
