RAMALLAH, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said on Monday that the United States is exerting pressures on Arab states to stop their financial aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
In a statement released by the official Palestinian radio station Voice of Palestine, al-Maliki said the Palestinians are looking into ways to legally pursue the cases against the U.S. "illegal steps to impose a financial blockade on the Palestinian people."
The Palestinians are seeking alternative financial sources in order to "respond to the U.S. government's punitive measures," he added.
The Palestinians are considering resorting to the UN General Assembly and international legal organizations against Israel's intention to deduct money allocated to families of Palestinian prisoners and those slain by Israeli forces out of PA's tax revenues collected by Israeli authorities, the minister noted.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that his government is going to approve next week the law to deduct PA's financial allocations out of its tax revenues, according to the Israeli public radio.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party accused Israel and the United States of "tightening the financial blockade" against the PA, after the PA rejected the U.S.-proposed Middle East peace plan.
The Palestinians declared its boycott of the U.S. government since it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved its embassy in Israel to the holy city.
