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Arab Finance Ministers to Hold Emergency Meeting in Support of PA

Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian boy during clashes in West Bank. Reuters file photo
Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian boy during clashes in West Bank. Reuters file photo
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Arab Finance Ministers to Hold Emergency Meeting in Support of PA

Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian boy during clashes in West Bank. Reuters file photo
Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian boy during clashes in West Bank. Reuters file photo

The Arab League General Secretariat decided to hold an emergency meeting of Arab finance ministers at its headquarters in Cairo early next week to discuss the means to provide a financial safety net for the Palestinian Authority in face of Israeli pressure.
 
Ambassador Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League, said on Tuesday that it was decided to hold an emergency meeting at the invitation of Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit and in coordination and consultation with the Palestinians.
 
Zaki added that the meeting next week comes in implementation of the resolution issued by the emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers, which was held in Cairo on April 21 in the presence of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The resolution provided for the establishment of a financial safety net of $100 million per month in support of the State of Palestine to cope with political and financial pressures imposed by Israel.
 
On whether there were specific proposals from the Arab League to provide support to the Palestinians, Zaki said: “There are no specific suggestions, but the Palestinian side has welcomed grants and loans from Arab countries or financial institutions so that the Palestinian Authority can recover the funds and repay the loans.”
 
Zaki denied a link between the meeting of Arab finance ministers and the US economic workshop in Bahrain, stressing that the meeting comes in implementation of a previous decision of the Arab League.
 
Meanwhile, Aboul Gheit met on Tuesday with Azzam Al-Ahmad, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Central Committee of the Fatah Movement.

Discussions touched on latest political developments in the region, especially with regard to the Palestinian cause.

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Syria Monitor: 101 Killed in Battles between Pro-Türkiye, Kurdish Forces

A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration shoots at pictures of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father and former president Hafez al-Assad, inside the abandoned Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) base near Damascus on January 4, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration shoots at pictures of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father and former president Hafez al-Assad, inside the abandoned Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) base near Damascus on January 4, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
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Syria Monitor: 101 Killed in Battles between Pro-Türkiye, Kurdish Forces

A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration shoots at pictures of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father and former president Hafez al-Assad, inside the abandoned Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) base near Damascus on January 4, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration shoots at pictures of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father and former president Hafez al-Assad, inside the abandoned Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) base near Damascus on January 4, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)

More than 100 combatants were killed over the last two days in northern Syria in fighting between Turkish-backed groups and Syrian Kurdish forces, a war monitor said on Sunday.
Since Friday evening, clashes in several villages around the city of Manbij have left 101 dead, including 85 members of pro-Turkish groups and 16 from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The SDF said it had repelled "all the attacks from Türkiye’s mercenaries supported by Turkish drones and aviation".
The Turkish defense ministry said it had "neutralized" 32 Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, without providing further details.
Turkish-backed factions in northern Syria resumed their fight with the SDF at the same time as the opposition armed factions were launching an offensive on November 27 that overthrew Syrian president Bashar al-Assad just 11 days later.
The pro-Ankara groups succeeded in capturing Kurdish-held Manbij and Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo province, despite US-led efforts to establish a truce in the Manbij area.
The fighting has continued since, with mounting casualties.
During a visit to Damascus on Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said security of the Kurds is "essential for a peaceful Syria." She said this requires "an end to the fighting in the north and the integration of the Kurdish forces... in the Syrian security architecture."
The SDF controls vast areas of Syria's northeast, and parts of Deir Ezzor province in the east, where the Kurds created a semi-autonomous administration following the withdrawal of government forces during the civil war that began in 2011.
The group, which receives US backing, took control of additional territory after capturing it from the ISIS group.
Ankara accuses the main component of the SDF, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of affiliation with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency in southeastern Türkiye and is banned as a terrorist organization by the government.
The Turkish military regularly launches strikes against Kurdish fighters in Syria and neighboring Iraq, accusing them of being PKK-linked.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria's new leader and the head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, told Al Arabiya TV in late December that local Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the national army.
HTS led the coalition of opposition groups that overthrew Assad last month.