RAMALLAH (Xinhua) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Foreign Relations Advisor Nabil Shaath slammed on Wednesday the U.S. House of Representatives' vote to reduce annual aid to the Palestinian Authority.
The bill is "a criminal act that is rejected on all Palestinian levels," Shaath told Xinhua.
"The U.S. has been threatening for a while to stop its aid to pressure the Palestinian Authority to stop the salaries of detainees and martyrs," he added.
The advisor described the step as "absolute bias toward Israeli side," saying it "completely ends any role of Washington as an honest broker of the peace process."
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to reduce the 300-million-U.S.-dollar annual aid unless the PA stops paying salaries to families of Palestinian detainees in the Zionist regime’s jails and families of those killed by Zionist troops.