The Trump administration remains committed to increasing US taxpayer aid to the Palestinian government despite its ongoing policy of using a portion of these funds to provide monetary aid to terrorists who have carried out attacks on Israel, according to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, contradicting his earlier statements this week that the Palestinians had reversed its policy of paying terrorists.
Nabil Shaath, an advisor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the Palestinians were surprised by Tillerson's remarks.
"There is no gap between the President and myself or the State Department on policy", he told Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) in response to questioning on Tuesday morning before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Rex Tillerson warned that the US Senate's bipartisan deal on new set of restrictive measures against Moscow might further worsen relations with Russia and hinder existing efforts on joint US-Russia progress to fight terrorism in Syria.
"Those people, (prisoners) have sacrificed their lives for their people and the minimum we can do to them is taking care of their families", Karake said. If Trump objected, some of its backers said they expected enough congressional support to override a veto. So Mideast followers were surprised and confused when Tillerson said Tuesday the Palestinians had changed the policy. "He said he will continue the payments".
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The surgeon on Friday said he was "a lot more confident and optimistic" about Scalise's recovery than he was two days ago. But he will remain in the hospital for "a considerable period of time" and faces additional operations.
The comments by Mr. Tillerson, in testimony before the House Foreign Relations Committee, appeared to mark a departure from longstanding USA policy and represents a potential break from other world powers, including Germany and France, who have supported the cease-fire and peace accords reached in Minsk, Belarus, in 2014 and 2015.
Some 277 Palestinians released from Israeli jails under a prisoner-swap agreement and transported to the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is in charge, had their monthly stipends stopped, they told Reuters this month. Tillerson said he'd replied by saying that's one thing, but that payments "as recognition of violence or murder" is unacceptable to Americans.
"They have changed their policy, at least I have been informed they've changed that policy", Tillerson told U.S. lawmakers.
Later on Monday, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) confirmed that Secretary Tillerson was mistaken.
However, Abbas has taken some steps to stop payments in recent weeks, following meetings he held with President Donald Trump in Washington at the start of May and later the same month when the president visited the region.
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