Qatar has agreed to provide $150 million in debt relief to the Palestinian Authority, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday as he announced that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are intensifying. Speaking after he briefed Arab states about the direct peace negotiations, which resumed on July 29 with a goal of reaching an agreement within nine months, Kerry told reporters that the two sides have increased the pace of their discussions.
He also said that the government of Qatar would offer the debt relief to the donor-dependent Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and faces mounting debt as Western and Gulf aid has dwindled.
| I can only hope this means that cash from the West has been drying up... |