USA WON’T PAY ADDITIONAL $45 MILLION PLEDGED FOR PALESTINIAN AID:

The USA will not provide $45 million in food aid for Palestinians that it pledged last month as part of the Judea & Samaria/ Gaza Emergency Appeal led by UNRWA - the USA State Department said on 18 Jan. 2018. The State Department said on 16 Jan. 2018 that Washington would withhold a separate $65 million from UNRWA, saying it needed to make reforms. "The United States plans to make this funding available to UNRWA in early 2018,”said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. The United States had made clear to UNRWA that the $45 million was a pledge aimed at helping the agency, but it was not a guarantee, Nauert told reporters. "At this time, we will not be providing that, but that does not mean that it will not be provided in the future,” Nauert said. She repeated the USA view that UNRWA needs reform, saying there are a lot more refugees in the program than previously, and that "money coming in from other countries needs to increase as well to continue paying for all those refugees. So we’re asking countries to do more,” Nauert said. "Fundamentally, we just don’t believe that we have to be the chief donor to every organization around the world.” Despite the decision on the food aid pledge, she said: "We remain the most generous country on the planet.” (Reuters)