Palestinian Minister of Planning, Samir Abu Aisha, stated on Thursday that he is willing to meet with his Israeli counterpart Abraham Hertzishon, to discuss financial issues with him.
In an interview with the Ramattan News Agency, Abu Aisha stated that
the Palestinian side has no problem in resolving financial and planning issues by
holding meetings with Israeli ministers.
Abu Aisha added that the Palestinian Minister of Finance, who is
currently imprisoned by Israel, had repeatedly called for such
meetings.
Moreover, Abu Aisha said that no meetings with Israeli officials and counterparts had taken place yet.
He did not elaborate whether such meetings, if they occur, would or would not be considered as recognition of Israel.
Abu Aisha also said that the ministry signed an agreement to import oil
into the Gaza Strip. The agreement is similar in terms to an agreement
with Paz Israeli Company that used to provide fuel to the West Bank
over the past twelve years.
Commenting on payments of salaries to Palestinian employees, Abu Aisha
said that an amount of 1500 New Israeli Shekels will be paid to
education ministry employees who did not benefit from the European
Union donation that was paid to Palestinian employees over the last
four weeks.
He added that the Palestinian government had decided to allocate 30
million USD from the Arab League fund, in order to pay salaries for
security personnel.
Security personnel received a total of 83 million Israeli shekels (about 15 million US Dollars) out of 178 million owed to them.
