DOHA — Qatar has granted $150 million to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to help revive its economy as peace talks with Israel have run aground, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said on Wednesday. The PA, which relies on foreign aid to plug a chronic budget deficit, has long struggled to pay salaries of some 170,000 civil servants and finance the costs of running main services in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Gaza's only power plant was forced to switch off its generators earlier this month due to a shortage of fuel which the PA has been unable to pay for. “We asked for $150 million, and the emir was very accepting of this. We hope it will be granted at the soonest time possible,” Hamdallah told Reuters after talks with the Qatari Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in Doha. “We have a lot of resources in Palestine but we are facing these economic problems because of the occupation,” he said. Last month, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Paris after talks with Qatari Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Attiyah that Qatar had agreed to provide $150 million in debt relief to the Palestinian Authority. – Reuters
