The UAE calls on countries that suspended funding for UNRWA to urgently withdraw
The UAE called on the countries that suspended funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to urgently retract.
This came according to what Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, said during a phone call with Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner of UNRWA, according to the Emirates News Agency.
The two sides discussed ways to support the agency in performing its noble humanitarian missions, and the necessity of ensuring that humanitarian, relief and medical aid reaches the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip urgently, intensively, safely and without any obstacles.
The UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan stressed the UAE’s firm support for UNRWA, stressing its vital role in light of the current circumstances that the Palestinian people are going through, especially in the Gaza Strip.
He pointed out that there are two million people in urgent need of assistance provided by UNRWA and other United Nations agencies.
Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan called on donor countries that suspended their funding to UNRWA to urgently reconsider this decision and continue providing support to the agency to perform its humanitarian tasks.
Since January 26, 18 countries and the European Union have decided to suspend their funding to UNRWA, based on Israel’s allegations that 12 of the agency’s employees participated in the operation al Aqsa Flood carried out by the Hamas movement on October 7, 2023 against the rules of the UNRWA.
Israeli military and settlements in the Gaza Strip, while the organization opened an investigation into these allegations.
These countries are: the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Italy, Britain, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, New Zealand, Iceland, Romania, Estonia, Sweden, in addition to the European Union, according to the United Nations as of Tuesday evening.
While three countries, Spain, Ireland, and Norway, announced that they “won’t cut off aid,” but they welcomed an investigation into Israeli allegations about the participation of some agency employees in the Hamas attack on settlements.
The Western announcements came hours after the International Court of Justice in The Hague announced its rejection of Israel’s demands to drop the genocide lawsuit in Gaza brought against it by South Africa and temporarily ruled to oblige Israel to take measures to stop the genocide and bring in humanitarian aid.
UNRWA was established by a decision of the United Nations General Assembly in 1949, and was authorized to provide assistance and protection to refugees in its five areas of operations, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, until a just solution to their problem is reached.
