UN envoy: Palestinian refugees 'weeks away' from major cuts
UNITED NATIONS -- The UN Mideast envoy says the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is "weeks away from painful cuts" to its emergency assistance for Gaza and refugees elsewhere because of an unprecedented $250 million gap in its budget.
Nikolay Mladenov told the Security Council Tuesday that in Gaza "this would include a deferral of salaries to some of its workforce in July and the start of suspending core operations in August."
The Trump administration announced in January it was withholding $65 million of a planned $125 million funding installment for the agency, known as UNRWA. But UNRWA said it believed the US would provide $365 million in 2018 so the actual cut is around $300 million.
Mladenov said a pledging conference for UNRWA will be held on June 25 at UN headquarters.
