{"id":126878,"date":"2018-01-23T14:47:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T14:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=126878"},"modified":"2018-01-23T17:02:46","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T22:02:46","slug":"potential-unrwa-budget-cuts-daily-press-briefing-db180115-excerpts","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/potential-unrwa-budget-cuts-daily-press-briefing-db180115-excerpts\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential UNRWA Budget Cuts – Daily Press Briefing (DB180115) (excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DB180115<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
15 JANUARY 2018<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
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Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General<\/h1>\n
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The following is a near\u2011verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary\u2011General.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 St\u00e9ph, does the Secretary\u2011General have any comment on reports that the United States is planning to dramatically cut the budget for UNRWA\u00a0(Â鶹APP Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) for Palestinian refugees?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 You know, we\u2019ve\u2026 we haven\u2019t been advised of anything officially. \u00a0We\u2019re obviously aware and we\u2019ve seen the press reports.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s\u2026 it\u2019s very important to understand a few things. \u00a0One, UNRWA\u2019s mandate is given to it by the General Assembly to support humanitarian human development work. \u00a0UNRWA serves, I think, some of the most marginalized population in the Middle East. \u00a0And I think its presence through its activities and its presence through health, education, and humanitarian help is a force for stabilization in a very volatile\u2026 a very volatile area.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Can I follow up?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 It\u2019s just\u2026 just to follow up, it looks like it\u2019s going to be 60\u00a0million that\u2019s going to be cut instead of\u00a0125. \u00a0Is that a gap, for instance, that other countries could cover?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 I keep in my head what the Secretary\u2011General tells me to say, which is never to comment on things that have not happened. \u00a0So, our position on UNRWA, I\u2019ve just stated. \u00a0We\u2019ll obviously wait to see what the actual number is.\u00a0 The United States is a major funder of UNRWA. \u00a0We\u2019ve always appreciated its\u2026 its contributions. \u00a0The fact is that UNRWA\u2019s work will\u2026 is critical, and if any donor severely cuts its contributions, we will have to find other\u2026 other sources.\u00a0 Sir?<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Hi, St\u00e9ph. \u00a0What is the UN\u2019s position on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas\u2019 statement on Sunday that he would only accept a broad international panel to broker any peace deal, basically undercutting the US\u2019s role as\u2026 as chief mediator?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Look, I have no particular comment on\u2026 on what President Abbas said except to say that, for us, what is critical is that there be negotiations between the parties leading to a\u2026 to a two\u2011State solution based on all relevant Security Council resolutions.\u00a0 Yes, sir?<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Another question on the Middle East. \u00a0There was a statement from Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs. \u00a0He said that he expects that the Middle East Quartet might meet very soon. \u00a0Any indications from the UN that such meeting can take place and when?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 We\u2019ve checked. \u00a0We\u2019ll try to get back to you if we have an update.\u00a0 Mr.\u00a0Lee?<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DB180115 15 JANUARY 2018 Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General The following is a near\u2011verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary\u2011General. \/… Question:\u00a0 St\u00e9ph, does the Secretary\u2011General have any comment on reports that the United States is planning to dramatically cut the budget […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[2553],"document-category":[1699],"document-source":[5352,1897,1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1945,1797,1905],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-126878","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","country-united-states-of-america","document-category-press-conference","document-source-secretary-general","document-source-united-nations-department-of-public-information-dpi","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-peace-process","document-subject-peace-proposals-and-efforts","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/126878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/126878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=126878"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=126878"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=126878"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=126878"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=126878"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=126878"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=126878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}