STRESA: G7 financing leaders may call on Israel to keep correspondent banking links between Israeli and Palestinian banks to allow important transactions, trade and services to maintain, according to a draft joint statement seen by Reuters on Saturday.
The declaration, to be released at the end of a Group of Seven finance ministries and central banks administrators ‘ meeting in northern Italy, also calls for Israel” to relieve withheld certification profits to the Palestinian Authority, in view of its immediate fiscal needs”.
The declaration echoes a notice on Thursday from U. S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said the disappointment to maintain a soon-to-expire bank exemption had cut off a essential lifeline for the Palestinian territories amid a destructive conflict in Gaza.
” We call on Israel to take the necessary measures to ensure that correspondent banking services between Israeli and Palestinian banks remain in place, so that vital financial transactions and critical trade and services continue,” the draft statement said.
The G7 finance leaders also called for the removal or relaxation of other measures” that have negatively impacted commerce to avoid further exacerbating the economic situation in the West Bank. “
