Saudi Arabia will deliver 200 million US dollars to the Palestinian Authority (PA), caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced on Monday.

In a press conference at his Ramallah office, Fayyad said that “this generous delivery from Saudi Arabia will enable the PA to fulfill its commitments to the Palestinians who are living under siege, mainly in Gaza.”

The funds are to be transferred to the PA treasury over the coming days, he said.

Fayyad said that the aid-dependent PA has spend more than three billion US dollars since his government was appointed in mid-2007 following the breakup of the Hamas-Fatah unity government.

He also said that the PA, based in Ramallah, sends some 120 million US dollars to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip each month to pay workers’ salaries, pensions, and social allowances, in addition to public services.

Fayyad was also slated to sign an agreement for a 39 million Euro funding deal with the European Union on Monday.

After winning parliamentary elections in 2006, Hamas took full control of the Gaza Strip through force in June 2007. President Mahmoud Abbas then appointed Salam Fayyad, an economist favored by donor states, to lead a caretaker government that still holds power only in the West Bank.
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