FM to take part in stakeholders’ meeting on UNRWA in New York

AMMAN – Minister of Foreign and Expatriates Affairs Ayman Safadi will participate next Thursday in a ministerial meeting in New York to support UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Representatives from Turkey, Sweden, EU, Japan and Germany will attend the meeting, along with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

The meeting aims to garner further financial support to ensure the continuation of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Following the ministerial meeting, Safadi and UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl will hold a press conference to highlight the latest efforts aimed at bridging the agency’s financing gap in the aftermath of the US decision which completely halted all forms of funding for the agency.

US President Donald Trump’s administration announced on August 31 that it would no longer support UNRWA and since the US is the largest donor to UNRWA, the decision put the agency in the worst financial crisis in 70 years. 

UNRWA is currently facing a budget deficit of $186 million for the rest of the year, according to a statement issued by the agency.

UNRWA provides education, health care, food aid and other social services to more than five million Palestinian refugees in the occupied territories as well as in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Other countries, such as Germany, China and the United Kingdom had announced new pledges or pledged to increase their regular annual contributions, but the UNRWA services, including its extensive school system, remained at risk, the statement added.

Jordan hosts more than two million of the more than five million registered and supported by UNRWA refugees and has been on the go recently to garner donor support to ease the agency’s crippling financial crisis.