11 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday called on Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz to prevent future withholdings of funds raised on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, after the US government and the UN expressed concern over Israel’s decision to stop transferring these revenues.
“Yellen has emphasized the need for Israel to maintain economic stability in the West Bank by regularly transferring settlement proceeds to the Palestinian Authority and ensuring that banking relations between Israeli and Palestinian banks remain uninterrupted,” her office said in a statement.
At the meeting, which took place in Washington on the sidelines of the NATO Summit, the US official recalled the Treasury executive order holding individuals and entities responsible for perpetrating, inciting or financially supporting violence in the West Bank, while explaining the actions taken to “disturb Iran and its allies,” including the Lebanese Shiite militia party Hezbollah and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
Finally, he welcomed the exchange of information with Israel and noted that “ongoing collaboration to combat terrorist financing has yielded fruitful results with regard to countering Iranian financial and military support to Hamas, Hezbollah and other regional partners.”
Last week, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich agreed to partially release tax revenues from the past three months and sign a waiver extending compensation to Israeli banks working with the Palestinian side for another four months, although Washington had asked for an extension of at least a year and to commit to all future revenue transfers.
The Israeli authorities collect these funds on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and transfer them on a monthly basis, after deducting the costs of services such as electricity and water. In recent years, these payments have been frozen on several occasions in the face of tensions in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
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