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Trump cuts UNRWA funding amid Abbas assault
[Jpost] The Trump administration informed the UN Relief and Works Agency on Tuesday that it was cutting tens of millions of dollars in aid to the organization, amid an escalating diplomatic crisis between Washington and Ramallah, a US official told The Jerusalem Post.President Donald Trump heeded the advice of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster ‐ in addition to that of the Israeli government ‐ and agreed to transfer $60 million to the UN body for now, as opposed to cutting all funding outright. But the remaining pledge of $65m. has been withheld "for future consideration," according to a letter sent to the agency. While the policy decision came out of the State Department, which faced a UN dues payment this week, the question of how to proceed became an interagency debate among Trump’s top foreign policy staff and involved the president himself. Only one of those figures ‐ Nikki Haley, Trump’s ambassador to the UN ‐ advocated for a full and immediate aid cut. UNRWA is a unique international body originally set up to assist hundreds of thousands of refugees displaced by the Arab war against the establishment of the State of Israel. Now, 70 years later, the organization offers aid the descendants of those refugees, numbering in the millions. Informing UNRWA of its decision, the Trump administration called for a "fundamental reexamination" of the agency. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed alarm at the consequences of such a move. "I’m very concerned," he told reporters on Tuesday. Hope you'll have many more reasons to be concerned in the future, Tony Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2018-01-17 |
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