Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh welcomed today’s announcement by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to resume aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), estimated at $150 million annually, and support for development projects in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, estimated at $75 million, which will come into effect during the last quarter of this year. This is in addition to strengthening the process of law enforcement and justice in occupied Palestine, as all such aid ceased during the former Trump’s presidency.
Shtayyeh called upon the US Administration to work with the Quartet for Middle East Peace to open a new political horizon towards the liberation of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, per international legitimacy and resolutions.
“We are not just looking forward to a resumption of US financial support, but for the establishment of strong political relations with the United States in a way that fulfills the inalienable rights of our people, including our independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. We call upon the United States to reopen its historic consulate in occupied Jerusalem and to exert pressure on Israel, the occupying power, to stop its illegal settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly in occupied Jerusalem with the ongoing operations of ethnic cleansing,” the Prime Minister concluded his statement.
