Norway PM says deal for Israel to release PA tax funds is ‘imminent’

MUNICH — An agreement to unfreeze tax funds earmarked for the Palestinian Authority that are held by Israel is “imminent,” says Norway’s prime minister, whose country is working as an intermediary.

Under interim peace accords reached in the 1990s, Israel’s finance ministry collects tax on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the PA. But no payments have taken place since November following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas terrorists based in the Gaza Strip in October.

On January 21, Israeli officials said the cabinet had approved a plan for frozen tax funds earmarked for the Gaza Strip to be held by Norway instead of transferred to the PA.

“I would say that the talks have been concluded and we are very close to settling an arrangement,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store tells Reuters in an interview, saying he believed they have been able to forge a compromise.

“I think we are trusted by the parties to manage financial support to the PA in a responsible way,” he says. “It has taken a lot of diplomatic work between Norway, the PA, Israel, the US, but I will say that we are very close, imminent.”