President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order that will withdraw the United States from the UN Human Rights Council and suspend funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), White House sources said on Monday.
The decision comes just as the US president is due to receive a visit to Washington from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where they are expected to discuss the Iranian case, the normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the cessation of US funding to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees) and the US withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council, which the US administration accused of being biased towards Israel.
The United States has been a frequent critic of the UN Human Rights Council, accusing the body of bias against Israel and of being a haven for governments that have committed human rights violations.
According to a White House report, the Council has taken measures that the US believes favor authoritarian regimes while disproportionately criticizing Israel, despite widespread opposition to the country's genocide against the Palestinian people.
Suspension of aid to UNRWA
The other key component of this decision is the suspension of US funding to UNRWA. The agency is known as a pillar in providing humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, but has come under scrutiny due to reports of links between members of its staff and the Hamas resistance group.
Although this link has not been proven, and the Biden administration suspended aid funding to UNRWA, it has been confirmed that Israel killed several of the organization's workers during its intense bombing of civilians.
President Trump's decisions reflect his "America First" approach, which seeks to overhaul U.S. relations with international organizations that he says do not meet Washington's principles of transparency, fairness and human rights.
On Netanyahu's agenda these days is the Gaza "cleansing" plan launched by Trump, who invited Palestinians to move to neighbouring countries such as Egypt or Jordan, despite opposition from Cairo and Amman, as well as other Arab countries.
Qatar, which negotiated the ceasefire with the United States and Egypt, stressed the importance of allowing Palestinians to "return to their homes and their land."
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei warned that the transfer of Gaza residents would be “tantamount to ethnic cleansing.”
