Hamdallah: PA wants to reach agreement with teachers

Caretaker Palestinian Authority prime minister Rami Hamdallah said Sunday that the PA is dedicated to finalizing an agreement with teachers after months of strike action. "I can't pledge things which are impossible to fulfill, but we have followed a policy of transparency so as to be able together to go through these hardships and continue to build our institutions," Hamdallah said during the inauguration of a new school in Nablus. The PA will take practical steps to reaching an agreement with public school teachers in the West Bank, he added. Last week, the teachers' union said it would consider more strike action if the PA did not fulfill its promises by September. The teachers' union organized regular strike action in the first half of 2013 to protest unpaid salaries. The PA finance minister said recently that a shortfall in Arab donor aid would likely lead to delays in paying public sector salaries, above all for teachers.