UNRWA rejects Washington's call to dismantle it

The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has rejected the call by the United States to dismantle the UN agency.

In a press conference held at UNRWA headquarters in the Gaza Strip, Pierre Krinbol rejected the criticism of the agency by the US envoy to the peace process, Jason Greenblatt, stressing that no one could delegitimize it.

"We reject any accusations against UNRWA that it is responsible for the failure to resolve the issue politically, and we reject any false accusations and consider them misleading," Cranbol said.

The Commissioner-General added that the Agency regretted when the United States decided to cut off aid to UNRWA because it had already affected the largest humanitarian partner institution, stressing that it would never allow any attempt to delegitimize UNRWA.

The United Nations General Assembly says UNRWA will continue to provide services until a just solution to the refugee problem is found.

In response to a question by Agence France-Presse about whether there was a relationship between the financial crisis of the agency and the American peace plan, Cranebol stressed that "UNRWA's work has nothing to do with any deals," referring to the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, which the United States said it will launch next month.

He stressed that the mandate of UNRWA was due to the United Nations General Assembly as a whole and not to "one or two Member States".

In a speech before the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Greenblatt suggested the dismantling of UNRWA, which began operations in 1950.

In his attack on the UN agency, Greenblatt described UNRWA as a "wound bandage" and that it was time for host countries and NGOs to provide the services provided by the IAEA, adding that "UNRWA's model failed the Palestinian people."

The attack on the UN agency comes as the United States prepares for an economic conference in Bahrain at the end of next month, encouraging investment in the Palestinian territories as part of a move to implement the US plan for peace, a plan rejected by the Palestinians.