RAMALLAH Ñ Several Arab countries have cut off financing for the
Palestinian
Authority after press reports charged that chairman Yasser Arafat had embezzled funds meant
to aid Palestinians.
Palestinian sources said the Arab League funding was meant to
finance the Palestinian health system as well as to improve infrastructure. The Arab states froze more than $200 million in funding pledged
to the PA after reports in the Gulf Arab media asserted that Arafat had
embezzled $5 million in Arab allocations, the sources said.
Among the countries that have suspended funding are Morocco, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the sources said. They said
Egypt and Jordan have sent little financial help and instead have focused on
the transfer of food and humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
Palestinian officials have confirmed a sharp reduction in Arab and
Western aid, Middle East Newsline reported. They said many countries have pledged tens of millions of
dollars but have placed conditions on delivery of the aid.
"The United States has allocated $50 million in humanitarian aid to the
Palestinian people, and other countries did the same," PA International
Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath said. "But the actual supplies that
arrived were little."
Shaath has been touring Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council
states in an effort to renew Arab funding. The PA minister has stressed that
Arafat has implemented reforms meant to increase financial accounting and
transparency.
Saudi Arabia has maintained funding to the PA, the sources said. But the
sources said Riyad provides the lion's share of aid to Hamas and individual
Palestinian municipalities.
Saudi Arabia has agreed to fund an international team of military
experts and monitors in an effort to restructure PA security forces.
Palestinian officials said the monitors would come from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi
Arabia and the United States.
The Arab cutoff has frozen Palestinian developmental projects as well as
the operation of several hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The sources said
several of the countries that have halted funding are offering to relay
money directly to municipalities in the PA.
On Thursday, Israel met with international representatives regarding a
renewal of funding to the PA. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was
quoted as telling the International Task Force on Palestinian Reform that
Israel planned to release 10 percent of the $650 million being held in taxes
collected for the PA.
