The Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister (left) and the Secretary-General of the United Nations discussed in their meeting in New York the latest developments in the occupied Palestinian territories (Qatar News Agency)
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani warned of the disastrous repercussions of stopping funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
During his meeting with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, in New York on Saturday, the Prime Minister called on the Qatari Foreign Minister to separate the agency as a UN institution from the allegations regarding a number of its employees.
The Qatar News Agency said that he stressed the importance of UNRWA's role in helping millions of people in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
The agency added that the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister discussed with the Secretary-General of the United Nations the latest developments in the Middle East, especially in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories, and ways to continue the entry of humanitarian aid to all parts of the Strip.
The UN-Qatari talks come as warnings circulate of the serious repercussions of the decisions taken by several Western countries to suspend their funding to the agency based on Israeli allegations of the involvement of agency employees in the attack carried out by Hamas on the seventh of last October.
UNRWA announced that it was investigating these allegations, while the United Nations said that Israel had not yet submitted a file containing the accusations against the UN agency’s employees.
Lazzarini talks about the humanitarian situation in Gaza during a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland (European)
Hasty decisions
In this context, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, described the decisions to stop funding the agency as hasty, illogical, and driven by the state of polarization imposed by the war on Gaza.
Lazzarini confirmed in an interview with the British Financial Times that he will continue in his position as long as the agency is able to support Palestinian refugees.
The newspaper said that the confirmation of the Commissioner-General of UNRWA that he will continue in his position represents a challenge to the Israeli demands for his resignation in light of the Israeli allegations.
The Financial Times indicated that 14 countries have so far announced the suspension of funding worth $440 million to UNRWA, noting that Lazzarini will conduct a Gulf tour in an attempt to obtain emergency funding from them.
UN officials had warned of the disastrous consequences of the steps taken by Western countries - led by the United States - towards the UN agency, stressing the impossibility of finding an alternative to UNRWA.
Source: Al Jazeera + Financial Times