Washington (September 01, 2018): The United States on Friday halted its funding for the United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after determining that the organization is “irredeemably flawed,” said the State Department.
According to the details, the US on Friday halted all funding to a UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees in a move likely to further heighten tensions between the Palestinians and the Trump administration.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the decision as “a flagrant assault against the Palestinian people and a defiance of UN resolutions.”
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the business model and fiscal practices of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were an “irredeemably flawed operation. “
“The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA,” she said in a statement.
Nauert said the agency´s “endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years.”
UNRWA says it provides services to about 5 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza. Most are descendants of people who fled Palestine in the 1948 war that led to the creation of the state of Israel. US President Donald Trump and his aides say they want to improve the Palestinians´ plight, as well as start negotiations on an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
But under Trump, Washington has taken a number of actions that have alienated the Palestinians, including the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
That move – a reversal of longtime U. S. policy – led Palestinian leadership to boycott Washington´s peace efforts. The United States paid out $60 million to UNRWA in January but withheld another $65 million pending a review. “Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution,” Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said.
“The American decision aims to wipe out the right of return and is a grave U. S escalation against the Palestinian people,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
Related News:
