Speaking on Sunday, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas (pictured in March) confirmed that two thirds of they money had been transferred by Israel (AFP Photo/)

Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas threatened Sunday to turn to the International Criminal Court over Israel's refusal to fully release hundreds of millions of dollars in tax monies owed to the Palestinian Authority.

In early January, Israel froze the monthly transfer of funds it collects on behalf of the PA as a punitive measure after the Palestinians moved to join the ICC.

But on Friday, Israel agreed to release the funds after deducting debts due for electricity, water and medical services.

Speaking Sunday, Abbas confirmed that two thirds of the money had been transferred.

"They said they were going to send the money and in the end they did, but a third of it was deducted - why?" he asked during a speech in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"Now we have a new file to take to the ICC, first there was the (summer) war in Gaza, then there was the settlements and now the Palestinian leadership is considering presenting this issue to the court in due time."

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Palestinians flee their destroyed neighbourhood to take shelter in a United Nations school for the n …

The Palestinians would not accept anything but the full amount, he said.

"We will not take the money until we get all of it: either you give us the full amount or we go to the ICC."

When the announcement was made on Friday, Israel did not say how much money would be transferred nor whether it would resume the normal monthly payment of around $127 million in customs duties.

The move comes after heavy international pressure on Israel to release the monthly funds, which account for two-thirds of the Palestinians' annual budget, excluding foreign aid.

A source close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told AFP Sunday that "a portion of the money" had indeed been transferred to the Palestinian Authority.

The source added that Israel had "assured the United States today that the remaining amount can be transferred at any moment".

Under an economic agreement between the sides signed in 1994, Israel transfers to the PA tens of millions of dollars each month in customs duties levied on goods destined for Palestinian markets that transit through Israeli ports.

Although the sanction has been imposed many times, it has rarely lasted more than one or two months, except in 2006 when Hamas won a landslide victory in Palestinian legislative elections and Israel froze the funds for six months.

Blocking the money also prevents the PA paying its roughly 180,000 employees, which costs almost $200 million (170 million euros) a month.

Czech President Milos Zeman speaks during an interview with Reuters at Prague Castle in Prague January 9, 2014. REUTERS/David W Cerny

PRAGUE (Reuters) - President Milos Zeman has "closed the door" of Prague Castle to the U.S. ambassador following comments perceived as critical of the Czech's decision to attend a World War Two commemoration in Moscow, according to local media reports on Sunday.

European Union leaders are boycotting the ceremony in May over Russia's role in the Ukraine conflict but Zeman -- who has frequently departed from the EU line -- has said he would attend.

"I can’t imagine the Czech ambassador in Washington would give advice to the American president where to travel," Zeman told news portal Parlamentni Listy. "I won’t let any ambassador have a say about my foreign travels."

"Ambassador (Andrew) Schapiro has the door to the castle closed."

A presidential spokesman told local media that Schapiro could still attend social events at Prague Castle, the official residence of the Czech president.

Schapiro told Czech television earlier this week it would be "awkward" should Zeman attend the ceremony as the only statesmen from an EU country.

Zeman, a former prime minister, has frequently departed from the common EU line on Ukraine and criticized sanctions against Moscow. The government, which is responsible for foreign policy, however, has held the EU line fully.

The Czech presidency is largely a ceremonial role but Zeman - who was the first president directly elected when he took office in 2013 - is outspoken on his views on both domestic and foreign policy.

(Reporting by Michael Kahn,; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

By Victoria Cavaliere

(Reuters) - An Oklahoma reserve sheriff's deputy accidentally shot and killed a man he was trying to arrest after mistaking his service weapon for a stun gun, the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office said on Saturday.

Eric Harris, in his 40s, was shot by the reserve deputy on Thursday following a foot chase, the sheriff's office said in a statement.

Tulsa County Sheriff’s investigators were looking into the incident, the statement said. An autopsy on Harris was expected to be completed in coming days.

Undercover police had bought ammunition and a semi-automatic pistol from Harris when arresting officers attempted to arrest him in a parking lot, the sheriff's office said.

Harris fled and when police caught up with him, he resisted arrest, the statement said.

Reserve Deputy Robert Bates, a 73-year-old former police officer, was trying to help officers take Harris into custody when he fired his gun, the statement said.

"Initial reports have determined that the reserve deputy was attempting to use less lethal force, believing he was utilizing a Taser, when he inadvertently discharged his service weapon, firing one round which struck Harris," it said.

The sheriff's office said Harris continued to struggle after the gun was fired, and might have been under the influence of drugs. He was described as a felon and had been under investigation for narcotic sales.

Harris' relatives could not be reached by telephone for comment. His death follows a string of fatal shootings involving police that have sparked a national debate about use of force by law enforcement.

Bates told the Tulsa World newspaper his attorney had advised him not to comment on the shooting.

(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere in Seattle; Editing by Ian Simpson and Chizu Nomiyama)

Younesi said that the aim of Iranian actions in "Greater Iran" was to ensure the security of the people there, adding that Saudi Arabia has nothing to fear from Iran's actions because the Saudis are incapable of defending the people of the region. He also said that anything that enters Iran is improved by becoming Iranian, particularly Islam itself, adding that Islam in its Iranian-Shiite form is the pure Islam, since it has shed all traces of Arabism.

These are not the views of a single individual. They are shared widely among Iranian elites. They are also not new. They stretch back decades and are deeply rooted in Iranian society and Persian culture.

Younesi's speech was an outline of Iran's grand strategy. And, most important, it puts into context Iran's behavior in the region — largely covert operations to undermine its Arab neighbors, Israel and the United States, the countries that stand in the way of its pursuit of hegemony.

Iran conducts terrorism as a tool of statecraft — it is one of the only countries in the world to do so — largely against its neighbors. An Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in a Georgetown restaurant was foiled in 2011.

Iran supports international terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, which was behind the 1983 attacks on the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 258 Americans. These attacks are seen as the beginning of Islamic jihad against the United States as well as the start of the use of suicide car and truck bombs.

Hezbollah's stated reason for its existence is to destroy Israel. This is also Iranian state policy. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the most powerful person in the country, said in a speech in Tehran in late 2013, "Zionist officials cannot be called humans; they are like animals, some of them. The Israeli regime is doomed to failure and annihilation."

Iran also provides support to Shiite groups in the region with the intent of reinforcing Shiite-led governments or overthrowing Sunni Arab regimes. Tehran's extensive support has assisted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's killing of more than 100,000 of his own citizens. Iran's support to Shiite militia groups during the Iraq war resulted in the deaths of hundreds of U.S. servicemen there. One of Iran's proxies, the Houthis, recently overthrew the popularly elected government in Yemen.

This grand strategy, of course, is inconsistent with U.S. interests, and Iran knows that. At the conference, Younesi said that Iran was operating in Greater Iran against Sunni Islamic extremism, as well as against the Saudi Wahhabis, Turkey, secularists, Western rule and Zionism.

The nuclear framework agreement announced Thursday is a good deal for the United States. If fully implemented by Iran, it will push Iran's breakout time to produce a weapon from just a few months to beyond a year, while making it difficult for Iran to cheat.

But it will also, once sanctions are lifted, give Iran more resources to pursue its grand strategy, as outlined so clearly by Younesi. It has always been important that the United States and our allies have a policy to counter this strategy and contain Iran — and now it is even more important that we do so.

This article was written by Michael Morell from The Washington Post and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.