U.S. cuts funding for UNESCO with Palestinans aboard
The Associated Press:
The Obama administration cut off funding for the UN cultural agency on Monday, after its member countries defied an American warning and approved a Palestinian bid for full membership.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the vote triggered a long-standing congressional restriction on funding to UN bodies that recognize Palestine as a state before an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is reached. She said the U.S. as a result would refrain from making a $60 million payment it planned to deliver in November.
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The UNESCO vote represented a fallback plan for the Palestinian leadership that presented its plan for UN recognition as a state and full membership in the global body in September. Israel has fiercely opposed the bid, and it has no chance of passing because the Obama administration has promised to veto any resolution in the Security Council.
Really a nasty, strained situation for everybody.