US withholds $65m from UN agency for Palestinian refugees

WASHINGTON — The United States has informed a UN body in charge of aiding Palestinian refugees that the nation will withhold $65 million in a bid to push for the agency’s “reform”, the US State Department has said.

The US had delivered a letter earlier on Tuesday to the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in the Near East to inform it of the decision, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a news conference on Tuesday.

The money being frozen would be held for future consideration, rather than being canceled, she said.

“One of the things that the United States would like to do is see some revisions made in how UNRWA operates,” she said. “One of the things this administration would like to do, just as we talk about UN reform, ... it’s not a lost cause at all. We would like to see some reforms being made.”

Despite the suspension, the US will still commit a voluntary contribution of $60 million in 2018 to ensure that the agency will not face a shutdown.

The decision was claimed to not have been aimed at punishing the Palestinians for bringing US President Donald Trump’s Jerusalem decision to the UN Security Council for vote last year.

Washington “would like other countries that criticize the US for what they believe to be our position vis-a-vis the Palestinians, other countries that have criticized us — to step forward and actually help with UNRWA, to do more”, Nauert said.

Trump was reportedly planning to withhold tens of millions of dollars for UNRWA, which was created in 1949 as a relief and human development agency for Palestinian refugees descendants.

The head of the UNRWA, Pierre Krahenbuhl, expressed alarm and called on other UN members to contribute.

He said the $60 million would keep schools and hospitals open for now, but saying it was dramatically lower than the $350 million Washington paid over the course of 2017.

“Funding UNRWA or any humanitarian agency is the discretion of any sovereign member state of the United Nations,” he said. and

Skepticism raised

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The US State Department’s position raised skepticism in the light of a tweet sent by Trump on Jan 2, at the time when the $125 million contribution had been due to be paid.

“We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect,” Trump wrote.

“They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel,” he said, adding: “Why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”

The Palestinians also saw the US decision as political.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the executive council of the Palestine Liberation Organization, accused Washington of seeking to dismantle UNRWA at Israel’s behest.

She accused the US of “targeting the most vulnerable segment of the Palestinian people”.

Also on Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern over the cut, saying the agency is providing vital services to the Palestinian refugees, both in the occupied territories and in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.