Trump to Cut Millions in US Humanitarian Aid Funding for UNRWA
Local Editor
US President Donald Trump's administration is preparing to withhold tens of millions of dollars from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Trump will cut the year's first contribution by more than half, or perhaps entirely, and make additional donations contingent on major changes to the organization, US officials said.
Meanwhile, he is yet to make a final decision, but appears more likely to send only $60m of the planned $125m first instalment to the UN Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA], the officials told the Associated Press.
The US is UNRWA's largest donor, supplying nearly 30 per cent of its total budget.
The agency focuses on providing health care, education and social services to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled or were forced from their homes during the war that led to the Zionist entity's establishment in 1948.
Today, there are an estimated five million refugees and their descendants, mostly scattered across the region.
The plan to withhold some of the money is backed by Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, and James Mattis, the War Secretary, who offered it as a compromise to demands for more drastic measures by Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the UN, the officials said.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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