World Bulletin / News Desk

According to Anadolu Agency, senior Israeli officials have called for imposing economic repercussions against the Palestinians should Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas unilaterally call off the Oslo Peace Accords and other protocols reports the Middle East Monitor.

Palestinian officials and economic experts confirmed to AA that Israel will be able to impose a number of economic sanctions that would immediately and heavily affect the Palestinians.

Early this week, Palestinian mass media reported Abbas’s plan to annul Oslo during his speech before the UN General Assembly in New York this month.

Oslo is the peace agreement signed between the PLO and Israel in the early 1990s, other protocols were signed in the following years. The Paris Protocol, which was signed 1995, organises the economic relations between the two sides.

Former PA Economic Minister Hassan Abu-Libdeh said that energy sectors would be the “main target for the Israeli sanctions against the PA,” noting that 95 per cent of PA’s energy imports come from Israel.

Abu-Libden stressed that the Palestinians do not have any oil reserves. “If Israel stopped exporting oil to the PA, Palestinian life would be frozen instantly” he said.

Additionally, Israel could control the Palestinians’ access to cash as the PA is dependent on the Israeli currency. This is a measure which Israel has used against Palestinians in Gaza, Abdallah said, causing economic stagnation.