Jason Greenblatt, the US Representative for International Negotiations, responded on Wednesday to claims by Palestinian Authority (PA) “prime minister” Mohammad Shtayyeh, who said the PA is on the verge of collapsing.
“PM Shtayyeh is wrong, the PA isn't ‘in a collapsing situation,’ the PA caused the situation. Time for the PA to step-up & take responsibility for their people & the economy. The PA can't continue to blame the US & everyone else for a situation they caused,” tweeted Greenblatt.
Shtayyeh made the comments in an interview with The New York Times, claiming the PA is staring at what could be its own demise, blaming mainly the Israeli government’s decision to offset the PA’s payments to terrorists from the tax money it collects on behalf of the PA.
In response to the Israeli decision, the PA announced it would not take the partial sum of the funds from Israel, and PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas later reiterated that he would not accept partial payment of tax transfers owed by Israel nor would he end the financial support for the families of terrorists imprisoned in Israel or eliminated while carrying out attacks.
Shtayyeh also attacked as “blackmail” the Trump administration’s yet to be unveiled peace plan. The US will lay out the economic component of its Middle East peace plan on June 25 and 26 in Bahrain.
The PA cabinet leader blasted the Trump administration for talking of improving the PA economy after it had eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars in United States aid to projects in both Judea and Samaria and Gaza, to the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees” (UNRWA), and to hospitals in eastern Jerusalem.
“These same people are the ones who have been working on the drying up of the financial resources of the Palestinian Authority,” he told The New York Times. READ MORE
