Arab FMs Discuss Ways of Financing Palestinians: AL ChiefThe Arab follow-up committee discussed a report on ways to finance the Palestinian people and enhance Arab unity, Esmat Abdel Meguid, secretary general of the Cairo-based Arab League, said late Sunday.Meguid said, at a news conference after the committee concluded its one-day meeting, that the report recommended providing the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) with 40 million U.S. dollars every month from the Al-Aqsa fund to enable it to pay salaries and dues. The report also urged Arab countries, which have promised contribution to the fund, to donate money as soon as possible, said the AL chief. He called for setting up a new "flexible" mechanism to facilitate providing the Palestinians with aid and funds. Foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian National Authority, Saudi Arabia, Syria andTunisia.html target=_blank> Tunisia attended the meeting to follow up the implementation of the resolutions adopted at the emergency Arab summit last October in Cairo. The follow-up committee was set up at the summit, during which Arab leaders pledged to provide moral and financial support to the Palestinians by creating two funds: the Al-Aqsa Fund with 800 million U.S. dollars and the Jerusalem Intifada Fund with 200 million dollars. The PNA said that it has so far received only 10 million dollars of the 1 billion dollars promised to it at the emergency Arab summit. Meguid also said that the next Arab summit, slated for March 27 in Jordan's capital Amman, will discuss the Arab boycott of Israel in the political and economic fields. |
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