RAMALLAH, January 17, 2018 (WAFA) -Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Zakaria al-Agha, said on Wednesday that United States freeze of $65 million in aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) aims at liquidating the Palestinian cause.

Agha, who heads the PLO’s refugees department, said in a statement that the American decision was part of its blackmail policy of the Palestinian leadership because it categorically rejected the United States decision considering Jerusalem as the capital of the Israel.

He expressed surprise at the US decision saying that the US, which is the largest donor to UNRWA, knows very well that the UN agency provides services not only to refugees in the Palestinian territories, but also to hundreds of thousands of refugees in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, all of which bear great financial burdens for hosting the Palestinian refugees.

He said that the international community has a moral responsibility toward the Palestinian refugees who have been displaced from their homes for seven decades because the international community has failed to redress them by implementing UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948, which calls for their right to return to their homes from which they have been displaced.

Agha said UNRWA is not a Palestinian institution but a UN institution providing vital services to refugees suffering from difficult living and humanitarian conditions.

He called for a concerted international effort to confront US plans to liquidate the UN agency.

Agha is expected to participate on Thursday in a meeting for the host countries of Palestine refugees with the UNRWA Commissioner-General in the Jordanian capital Amman.

M.K.