US won't provide $45m food aid pledged to UNRWA

Washington DC [United States], Jan 19 (ANI): The United States has announced that it will not provide USD 45 million in emergency food aid for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) for now.

The U.S. had pledged USD 45 million in emergency food aid to Palestinians as part of the UNRWA West Bank/Gaza Emergency Appeal last month.

Speaking at a press briefing, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert on Thursday said, "We made it clear that it was a pledge, it was not a guarantee, and that it would need to be confirmed later. At this time, we will not be providing that, but that does not mean - I want to make it clear - that does not mean that it will not be provided in the future".

Earlier this week, the State Department announced that it was withholding USD 65 million out of a USD 125 million aid package earmarked for the UNRWA.

According to the Al Jazeera, in a letter, the department said that additional U.S. donations will be contingent on major changes by the UNRWA.

Those funds are "frozen for future consideration", Heather Nauert, State Department spokeswoman, told reporters.

Earlier this month, Palestine rebuked United States President Donald Trump's claims of not providing financial aid to the country in the future, if they did not resume their negotiations with Israel.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, told Palestine's WAFA news agency that 'Jerusalem and its holy places were not for sale'.

Abu Rudineh also said that Palestine was not against returning to negotiations with Israel, but said 'the real peace and negotiations should be based on Arab and international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative leading to the establishment of the independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital'.

"If the United States has any concern for its interests in the Middle East, it must abide by the principles and references of the United Nations Security Council and the General Assembly, otherwise the U.S. will push the region to the abyss", he said.

Trump and his United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley threatened Palestine with cutting of financial funds to the Palestinians and the UNRWA to ensure that the Palestinians would return to the negotiating table with Israel.

In a strongly-worded tweet, Trump had written: "We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don't even want to negotiate a long overdue 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?" (ANI)