Palestinians to receive cash boost from Saudi Arabia

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK: The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority will receive a financial boost from Saudi Arabia to help Prime Minister Salam Fayyad pay public sector salaries, Palestinian officials said on Saturday. "The Saudi finance minister told the Palestinian Authority that the decision was made to transfer $100 million," said Palestinian Information Minister Riyad al-Malki.

Malki said the money was part of pledges made to the Palestinian Authority at a donors conference in Paris in December and expected the transfer to arrive in the coming days. Fayyad has struggled in recent months to pay government workers because many Arab donors have not met their financial commitments.

Earlier in the week, the European Union said it will inject 40 million euros ($59 million) of funds on top of the 256 million euros in budget support disbursed so far this year by the European Union. At the Paris conference, donors pledges $7.7 billion in aid to the Palestinians over three years. But only a fraction of that has materialised and most of it is earmarked for projects and not general spending. Fayyad wants more allocations to budget support.

Delays in paying salaries would be embarrassing for Fayyad, who was appointed last year with Western backing when President Mahmoud Abbas fired a Hamas government after the Islamists violently took over Gaza Strip after routing his forces there.