IranPress/America: A week after slashing bilateral aid for projects in the West Bank and Gaza, US State Department said in a statement: “The United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation,” adding it was not willing to “shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden” for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
The statement followed a Foreign Policy report in early August that revealed leaked emails in which Kushner pressed fellow officials to engage in "an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA."
US official told CNN the decision was made at a meeting between Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a White House senior adviser, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, but that US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley had also been pushing for the move.
UNRWA schools are considered one of its most successful projects
A spokesman for Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas sad US decision in freezing the funding of a United Nations aid program for Palestinian refugees is a "flagrant assault" against Palestinians.
“The consecutive American decisions represent a flagrant assault against the Palestinian people and a defiance of the UN resolutions,” Nabil Abu Rdainah said on Friday.
Yaakov Amidror, a retired major general and former national security adviser to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said closing UNRWA “in the long run, no question, is the right move to do”.
The US supplies nearly 30 percent of the total budget of the UN Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, and had been demanding reforms in the way it is run.
UNRWA, established by the UN General Assembly in 1949, not only serves Palestinians in the occupied territories but also in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. European and Arab countries have pledged to protect the agency and Germany promised a significant increase in financial backing.
Last Friday, the State Department announced the U.S. was cutting more than $200 million in bilateral aid to the Palestinians, following a review of the funding for projects in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman called that U.S. decision an attempt to force the Palestinians to abandon their claim to Jerusalem al-Quds.
Road sign directing to the U.S. embassy, in the area of the U.S.
Last December, United States officially opened its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem al-Quds, as Israeli forces killed dozen of Palestinian protesters.
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Following Trump’s announcement, Abbas declared that the US could no longer serve as a peace broker, and has since been working to create an international mechanism to guide the so-called Middle East peace process.
Now by cutting million in relief aid for Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, Washington is seeking to pressure Palestinians to accept a U.S. peace plan.
US administration is to reveal an initiative for creating peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The Palestinians rejected the "peace plan" to be unveiled by US President Donald Trump on the conflict with Israel, saying Palestinians will not accept anything other than an independent state with Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
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