UNRWA rejects U.S. bid to strip it of mandate
The head of the United Nations agency that has supported Palestinian refugees for seven decades hits on Thursday at a U.S. proposal to have host countries take over the services it provides across the Middle East.
The suggestion, from U.S. Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday, that UNRWA should be effectively dismantled was the latest U.S. attack on an agency that began operations in 1950.
"We need to engage with host governments to start a conversation about planning the transition of UNRWA services to host governments, or to other international or local non-governmental organizations, as appropriate," Greenblatt said after the Security Council was briefed by UNRWA chief Pierre Krahenbuhl.
Asked at a Gaza news conference on Thursday about Greenblatt's remarks, Krahenbuhl said UNRWA's mandate was a matter for the entire U.N. General Assembly to consider, not by "one or two individual member states".
