Ending embargo, Saudi Arabia to send $60 million to Palestinian Authority – report
In apparent warming of ties, kingdom to give funds to cash-strapped Ramallah in four monthly payments, in arrangement struck during Abbas visit to Riyadh
Saudi Arabia has promised to provide tens of millions of dollars to the financially struggling Palestinian Authority, reopening a spigot that was closed nearly a decade ago, according to a Monday report that cited officials and diplomats with knowledge of the development.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said that each month it would transfer a sum to its “brothers in Palestine” to help relieve the “humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and its surrounding areas,” The New York Times reported.
The ministry did not say how much would be sent or who would receive the money.
A senior PA official told the Times that the injection would total $60 million in four packages, with the first expected within days. The money will be used to prop up the PA’s budget, said the official, who spoke anonymously.
Four other Palestinian officials and four diplomats confirmed that the Saudi support would amount to tens of millions of dollars. All spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mahmoud al-Habbash, a senior adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said that the Saudis made the financial commitment during a visit by Abbas to the kingdom in late August.
International aid for the PA has dropped off due to concerns that it is corrupt and ineffective, a view shared by many Palestinians themselves.
The PA has been further squeezed by Israel withholding some tax revenues it collects on its behalf, citing concerns the money would go to Palestinian terrorists and their families. As the war in Gaza continues, Israel has placed restrictions on the movement of West Bank Palestinian laborers into Israel, further denting the PA economy.
The Saudi money won’t be enough to float the PA financially, the Times said, but noted it showed an improvement in ties with Palestinian leaders and increased support for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Saudi officials had indicated before the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel and the war it ignited that direct financial support to Ramallah, which dried up in 2016 amid graft allegations, would resume if the PA greenlights the kingdom’s normalization with Israel and increases efforts to curb corruption.
After the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas, Saudi Arabia largely put on ice US-backed plans for the kingdom to normalize ties with Israel, sources familiar with Riyadh’s thinking said earlier this year. Last month Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman again declared that normalization with Israel would not come without the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Such a move is considered a key sticking point with the current right-wing Israeli government, which has repeatedly rejected the possibility of a Palestinian state, especially in the wake of the October 7 attack, saying that doing so would be tantamount to rewarding terrorism.
Europeans, Arab, and Muslim nations have also recently launched a new initiative for a Palestinian state, and to prepare for a future after the war in Gaza ends.
