Posted on 07/26/2002 12:49:36 PM PDT by veronica
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. 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.
Boy, there's a shock.
How will he ever make ends meet?
No cause for alarm, he is already a dead man walking. When he departs the scene, somebody else will be enjoying hois millions.
But he will have his just reward in the gift of his 72 virgins.
Psst! Don't tell him this , but they are 72 virgin crusty look alikes, and they also don't like men.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
No it didn't. The specific story about the 5.1 million siphoned off to Arafat's wife first broke in a Kuwaiti paper.
From MEMRI: A Kuwaiti Daily Reports Arafat Deposited $5.1 Million from Arab Funds into His Personal Account
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