The United States has frozen $125 million (NZ$174m) in funding for a UN agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees, Axios news site reported on Friday, days after President Donald Trump threatened to withhold future aid payments to Palestinians.
Gaza City's skyline is seen engulfed in dust as a storm hits the region. Photo: AFP / MOHAMMED ABED
The funding, a third of the annual US donation to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, was supposed to be delivered by January but was frozen until the US government finishes its review of aid to the Palestinian Authority, Axios reported, citing three unidentified Western diplomats.
President Trump said on Tuesday he would withhold money from the Palestinians, accusing them of being no longer willing to talk peace with Israel.
...peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
The United States is the largest donor to the agency, with a pledge of nearly $370 million as of 2016, according to UNRWA website.
Axios is a news site founded by former White House correspondents Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen.
- Reuters
