US holds back $65 million worth of aid from the Palestinians

Mr Trump had previously threatened to cut aid to the Palestinians
AFP/Getty Images
Martin Coulter16 January 2018

The US Government is withholding £47 million ($65 million) worth of aid from the Palestinians, reports say.

Donald Trump's administration was expected to approve its annual contribution to UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency), worth £90 million ($125 million).

Officials have said the US will provide just under half of that, withholding the rest "for future consideration".

Mr Trump has previously threatened to cut aid to the Palestinians if they failed to engage in peace talks with Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas (right) has criticised the president's actions 
EPA

Relations between Washington and the Palestinians have sunk to a new low, boding poorly for a peace plan the White House has promised to present.

Mr Trump infuriated Palestinians and Muslims around the world when he announced late last year that the US would recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy there.

This move was seen as upending decades of US policy and countering an international consensus that the fate of Jerusalem should be decided in negotiations between the two sides.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said: "[Trump] said in a tweet: 'We won't give money to the Palestinians because they rejected the negotiations'.

"Shame on you. When did we reject the talks? Where is the negotiation that we rejected?"

Protests erupt after Trump's Jerusalem decision

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Mr Abbas has said that by siding with the Israelis on a sensitive issue, the announcement had destroyed Mr Trump's credibility as a Middle East peace broker.

"We can say no to anyone if things are related to our fate and our people, and now we have said no to Mr Trump," he said.

"We told him the deal of the century was the slap of the century. But we will slap back."

The US funds almost 30 per cent of UNRWA's work.

Additional reporting by the Press Association

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