PA asks Israel permission to import fuel from Iraq

Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammed Shtayyeh, said the Palestinian Authority filed a formal request to Israel four months ago to allow the import of fuel from Iraq but has not received a response, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.

In a lengthy interview with the paper, Shtayyeh said his cabinet wants to reduce economic dependence on Israel and diversify its economic resources.

“We were in Iraq, Jordan, Egypt; we will travel to Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Similarly, we will link up more to international markets, we will import directly from abroad and export to those markets. There’s no reason that our economic relationships must be limited to Israel. Diversification is the name of the game; we are diversifying our resources here,” he said.

The Palestinian prime minister explained that Iraq has agreed to sell the Palestinian Authority fuel at reduced prices, noting that fuel is the largest spending in the budget.

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According to Shtayyeh, the Palestinian Authority imports three million litres of fuel from Israel on a daily basis, which costs more than $188 million per month, noting that importing fuel from Iraq will reduce pressure on the budget.

However, the spokesperson of the Coordinator of (Israeli) Government Activities in the (Palestinian) Territories (COGAT) denied receiving the official request from the Palestinian Authority.