Warnings emerged Saturday from the exaggerated financial shortfalls at the United Nations Relief Works Agency, UNRWA, amid reports about the plan of US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to dissolve it and merge into the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
In his first comment on a report published Friday, Deputy Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq told Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday that UNRWA currently suffers from a “destructive” financial crisis.
Haq asserted that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was exerting everything in his power so that UNRWA continues to provide services to millions of refugees in the region.
Foreign Policy (FP) magazine said Friday that Kushner has been highly critical of UNRWA, with him and other White House officials weighing its closure as part of their peace efforts.
On Saturday, the Palestinian presidency reaffirmed the constant position of President Mahmoud Abbas and the leadership towards the issues of Jerusalem and the refugees as the basis for any future peace solution.
The presidency’s statement came in response to the report, which unveiled US plans to dissolve UNRWA, thus ending the refugee issue.
“The refugee issue is a final status issue, which will only be resolved through negotiations leading to a just and agreed solution in accordance with the resolutions of international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative,” the Presidency said.
According to the FP report, Kushner wrote in an email dated Jan. 11 and addressed to several other senior officials, including Trump’s Middle East peace envoy, Jason Greenblatt, “It is important to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA. This [agency] perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace.”
