US and diplomatic sources told
The National that Washington and Cairo had agreed on the need to move quickly to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The Israeli government has been dragging its feet, the sources said, and has tried to link the aid to a prisoner release deal with Hamas.
But Israel has so far failed to convince the US and the two issues are being dealt with separately, the sources said.
Egypt has taken a central role in mediating last month s ceasefire in Gaza and leading efforts for reconstruction.
Abbas Kamel, Egypt’s intelligence chief, held high-level talks in Israel and Gaza this week.
Many object to compulsory conscription of young men and discrimination in the allocation of leadership positions.
The fate of thousands imprisoned in SDF jails has also been a major bone of contention, according to residents and tribal figures.
SDF officials imposed a curfew on the city and strengthened checkpoints around its main routes after many shopkeepers heeded a call for a general strike.
There were also attempts to mediate with local tribal leaders to calm the unrest that the SDF blamed on the YPG s erstwhile enemy Turkey, and agents of the Syrian government, claiming that infiltrators had stirred discontent.
The Kurdish-led SDF denies that its local administration discriminates against Arabs and says their policies seek to redress years of injustice by Syria s Arab nationalist Baath rulers whom they say had for decades denied them equal citizenship rights as Syrians.
Not much changed in markets over the second half of May; equities continued to pare losses experienced early on and US Federal Reserve “speak” has remained constant.
The inflationary theme, addressed in my last column, appears to have taken a back seat but it will surely re-emerge. Inflation data from last week – Core PCE, a price index defined as personal consumption expenditures less food and energy prices, which is the Fed’s preferred method of measuring inflation – slightly beat expectations with a monthly reading of 0.7 per cent compared with 0.4 per cent in April.
The annual reading came in at 3.1 per cent, compared with a previous reading of 1.9 per cent.