{"id":126919,"date":"2018-01-16T15:11:37","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T15:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=126919"},"modified":"2018-02-05T17:36:04","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T22:36:04","slug":"us-state-department-press-briefing-unrwa-budget-cuts","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/us-state-department-press-briefing-unrwa-budget-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"US State Department Press Briefing (UNRWA Budget Cuts)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This is a non-Â鶹APP document. The Â鶹APP provides these documents only as a convenience for reference purposes, and the inclusion of a document does not imply the endorsement of its content by the Â鶹APP.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Heather Nauert
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Spokesperson<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>
\nDepartment Press Briefing<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
Washington, DC
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
\n
January 16, 2018<\/strong><\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
TRANSCRIPT:<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\u00a02:39 p.m. EST<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\/…<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

QUESTION:<\/b>\u00a0Let\u2019s start with \u2013 in the Mideast with the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

MS NAUERT:<\/b>\u00a0Okay.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/b>\u00a0Today you guys informed the UN Relief and Works Agency that you\u2019re going to be withholding $65 million in a $125 million tranche, the first one of this calendar year. And I\u2019m just wondering if you could explain exactly why you\u2019re doing this.<\/p>\n

MS NAUERT:<\/b>\u00a0So let me start by saying that we delivered a letter today to\u00a0<\/a>UNRWA, the Â鶹APP Relief Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in the Near East \u2013 UNRWA. We committed a voluntary contribution of $60 million for 2018 so far. This will be divided into tranches. Sixty million is what we have indicated as the first available tranche. That money is going to sustain schools and health services to ensure that teachers and also health care providers can be paid their salaries. One of the reasons we decided to do this is that we felt that not providing that money would run the risk of having the organization and the people there run out of funds and that those entities would have to be potentially closed down.<\/p>\n

You bring up an additional pot of money, and that\u2019s also 2018 dollars: $65 million. That is money that will be held for future consideration. It\u2019s money that\u2019s being frozen at this time. It\u2019s not being canceled. It\u2019s just being held for future consideration.<\/p>\n

One of the things that the United States would like to do is see some revisions made in how UNRWA operates. One of our bureaus, PRM, our \u2013 one of our bureaus here at the State Department has a formal oversight role with UNRWA. We have people on the ground who take a look at some of the UNRWA activities and things they do, how the money is being spent. And one of the things this administration would like to do, just as we talk about UN reform, is take a look at UNRWA, trying to make sure that the money is best spent and best spent so that people can get the services, whether it\u2019s school or the health care services, that they need.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/b>\u00a0Right. Well, so what do they \u2013 what does it have to do to get the other 65 million?<\/p>\n

MS NAUERT:<\/b>\u00a0Well —<\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/b>\u00a0Or is it pretty much a lost cause, and they\u2019re not going to get it?<\/p>\n

MS NAUERT:<\/b>\u00a0No, no, it\u2019s not a lost cause at all. We would like to see some reforms being made. You\u2019ll want to know the specifics. I\u2019m not going to get into the specifics of that today. But we\u2019re taking a look at the organization, we\u2019re monitoring it, and we\u2019d like to see some reforms be made.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/b>\u00a0Well, is this a response to the Palestinians bringing the UN General Assembly resolution to a vote? I mean, is this \u2013 I guess there\u2019s a lot of \u2013 there\u2019s been a lot of criticism of plans to do this, which are by people who say that this is all political —<\/p>\n

MS NAUERT:<\/b>\u00a0Okay.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/b>\u00a0— that this doesn\u2019t really have to do with reforms, that this is an \u2013 aimed at punishing the Palestinians further.<\/p>\n

MS NAUERT:<\/b>\u00a0This is not aimed at punishing anyone. The United States Government and the Trump administration believe that there should be more so-called burden sharing to go around. The United States has been, in the past, the largest single donor to UNRWA. We would like other countries \u2013 in fact, other countries that criticize the United States for what they believe to be our position vis-a-vis the Palestinians, other countries that have criticized us \u2013 to step forward and actually help with UNRWA, to do more. So we\u2019re asking other countries to do more. Just as we have with NATO, asking other countries to provide that 2 percent GDP into its defense, we are asking countries to do more as it pertains to UNRWA.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/b>\u00a0All right. I\u2019ll let others after this \u2013 this is my last one.<\/p>\n

MS NAUERT:<\/b>\u00a0Okay.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/b>\u00a0So when you say you\u2019re asking other countries to step up, have you actually asked other countries to step up? Or is it —<\/p>\n

MS NAUERT:<\/b>\u00a0I believe we\u2019re —<\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/b>\u00a0Or is it up to UNRWA to go and put out their hat to the Europeans, to whoever?<\/p>\n

MS NAUERT:<\/b>\u00a0Well, I think just based on the way that the United States has operated in the past, where we\u2019ve put pressure on other countries, we\u2019ve had conversations with other countries asking them to do more, I can\u2019t imagine that we would handle this any differently.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/b>\u00a0No, I guess the \u2013 my point is, are \u2013 if, in fact, it is not a punishment or a political move to withhold this money, it seems to me that you would \u2013 and in fact, it\u2019s only about redistributing the \u2013 how UNRWA gets its money so that the United States pays less, it would seem to me that you guys would be out beating down people\u2019s doors saying, \u201cHey, we\u2019re not going to \u2013 we\u2019re withholding 65 million. Make this up,\u201d or, \u201cYou should.\u201d Are you doing that?<\/p>\n

MS NAUERT:<\/b>\u00a0Well, what we do as a government \u2013 and you don\u2019t hear us very often call out other countries specifically to do more. Sometimes we do that, but other times we find that we can be more effective and get countries to do more in whatever area we\u2019re looking for them to do more when we have some of those private conversations. But I can assure you as a part of our policy, we will be going to different countries and we will ask them to step up to the plate and provide additional money.<\/p>\n

Again, today announcing the $60 million that\u2019s going, the $65 million, and a potential second tranche is being held for now. And when I have more for you on that, I\u2019ll certainly give it to you.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

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

This is a non-Â鶹APP document. The Â鶹APP provides these documents only as a convenience for reference purposes, and the inclusion of a document does not imply the endorsement of its content by the Â鶹APP.   Heather Nauert Spokesperson\u00a0 Department Press Briefing\u00a0 Washington, DC January 16, 2018 TRANSCRIPT: \u00a02:39 p.m. EST \/… QUESTION:\u00a0Let\u2019s […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[2553],"document-category":[2197,2565,1869,2805],"document-source":[4798,1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1945,1745],"entity":[1985],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-126919","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","country-united-states-of-america","document-category-briefing","document-category-press-briefing","document-category-transcript","document-category-video","document-source-state","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","entity-state","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/126919","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\/126919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=126919"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=126919"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=126919"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=126919"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=126919"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=126919"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=126919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}