(AKI) - The emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah, says no donations destined for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip should go to the Palestinian National Authority led by president Mahmoud Abbas.Al-Sabah made the remarks after Muslim parliamentarians asked the emir about the destination of funds to help the people of Gaza.
"We will announce the precise figure that we will donate only at the donor countries conference due to take place in Cairo," said the emir, cited by Arab TV network Al-Jazeera. "Our government will, however, put conditions on the deposit of the funds which will be made to the Arab fund for development and one of these conditions is that they cannot be managed by the PNA."
According to local media, Islamic MPs are thought to be close to the Muslim Brotherhood movement which is banned in Egypt, and active in Kuwait, Jordan and Algeria. The MPs and other organisations are concerned that donations collected in Kuwait could end up in the coffers of the PNA.
Last week the leader of the Islamist Hamas movement, Khaled Meshal, asked donor countries to donate funds to the Hamas government led by deposed prime minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, and not the PNA government led by caretaker prime minister Salaam Fayyad in the West Bank.
The oil-rich emirate last Monday hosted a two-day Arab economic summit. However, talks about the crisis in the Gaza Strip dominated the agenda. Sheikh Sabah appealed to Palestinian politicians to seek unity and condemned the divisions between the rival Palestinian political factions, Fatah and Hamas.