Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – The US has announced it will axe more than $200 million in aid to Palestinians amid continuous tension over Jerusalem.
On Friday, a senior State Department official quoted by Reuters said that the fund would tackle “high-priority projects elsewhere.”
The US made a similar move in January, cutting more than half of the financial aid that the US normally provides to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
Heather Nauert, spokeswoman for the US State Department, explained Trump’s action, saying that the Trump administration would provide only $60 million to the UNRWA. She added that the country would withhold another $65 million “for future consideration.”
Nauert said that the move is aimed at encouraging other countries to increase their funding of the UN agency.
The move is set to generate more tension between the US and Palestine.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced a boycott against the US peace plan when Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the US embassy to the city.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) condemned the US move of cutting more aid, describing it as “the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool. The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion,” said the organization, as quoted by Al Jazeera.
