"Kuwait is a major donor of Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority is in desperate need for money to continue their economic plans. Our message was that Kuwait will maintain its support to the Palestinian Authority. We will not retreat and we will fulfil our commitment," Ambassador Jasem Al-Mubaraki, director of International Organisations Department at Kuwait’s foreign ministry, told Kuwait news agency KUNA.
Al-Mubaraki, who represented Kuwait at the one-day meeting, said, "we want to see that progress is made on the political track and this requires Israel to stop its settlement policy and we must have a timetable for negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis." He noted that the meeting focussed on financial and economic issues. Most of the countries reaffirmed their support to the Palestinian Authority, he added.
AHLC’s annual spring meeting was hosted by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton, and presided over by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store in his capacity as chair of the AHLC.
Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority , and Tony Blair, the Quartet’s Representative, also attended the meeting.
Store told journalists after the meeting that "We are meeting in a very difficult situation in the political context. The peace process in terms of negotiations on the final status is stalled and the prospect of Israelis and Palestinians getting together to negotiate the two-state solution do not look very optimistic." He said the financial situation of the Palestinian Authority is "in critical state" for two reasons, firstly because the growth of the Palestinian economy is limited by Israeli occupation and secondly that donors due to financial crisis and for other reasons are not living up to the pledges and expectations.
"We need to double effortS here for donor mobilisation and we need a clear easing of Israeli restrictions on Israeli economy," stressed the Norwegian minister.
"Were there to be a Palestinian state, the Palestinians would need no donors because they would run a very prosperous economy," he added.
On his part, Fayyad told journalists that "we are looking for USD 950 million to help us bridge the gap for our current operations." "The reason we are facing financial difficulty is a shortfall in financing related to programmed assistance. We need to see greaer effort to help us bridge the gap," added Fayyad. The AHLC in a statement called on donors to ensure the contribution of USD 1 billion in assistance to meet the recurrent financing requirements for the PA in 2012.
The AHLC expressed concern for the situation in the Gaza Strip and reiterated its full commitment to the UN Security Council resolution 1860, including for the need for security for all civil populations.
Since its establishment in 1993 the AHLC has served as the principal policy-level coordination mechanism for development assistance to the Palestinian people.
