US govt partnership with UN agency fully restored: UNRWA official
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UNRWA media advisor in Gaza, Adnan Abu Hasna (file photo)
Gaza: A senior official of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has said that the partnership between the US and the agency has been fully restored.
On Sunday, the UNRWA media advisor in Gaza, Adnan Abu Hasna, said the American financial aid to the Agency has reached $320 million this year, which is "close to the same level of financial aid as the US used to donate before former President Donald Trump", reports Xinhua news agency.
The renewal of the financial aid to the Agency "is a sign of confidence and a message to the others that the partnership between UNRWA and the US is fully restored", Abu Hasna added.
The Palestinian Authority had snapped all official ties with the White House and the State Department after Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel in December 2017.
As reciprocal action, President Trump in 2018 ordered a series of actions against the Palestinians, chiefly stopping significant of which was stopping the US financial aid to the UNRWA, which reached $360 million per year and constituted about 30 per cent of UNRWA's annual budget.
The UNRWA provides life-saving services to about 5.6 million Palestinian refugees in its five fields of operation that include Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
(With IANS input)