UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has great cooperation with Russia and is grateful for its support, Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl told Sputnik on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Thursday.
"We have... excellent cooperation with Russia," Krahenbuhl said. "We signed two years ago a multi-year agreement with the Russian Federation to support UNRWA and we are very grateful for that."
The UNRWA, Krahenbuhl added, would be very grateful to expand cooperation with Russia but they will see once the five year agreement is renewed.
The Commissioner-General also said on the occasion of one of the meetings he thanked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for the cooperation.
On Thursday, the UNRWA received $118 million in emergency funding from various nations to maintain basic services for millions of Palestinian refugees through the end of 2018. Krahenbuhl in a press conference said the funding was raised on the sidelines of the UNGA.
The United States in January withheld a part of $350 million in annual funds for the UNRWA after US President Donald Trump said that Palestinians lacked the willingness to hold peace talks with Israel. In August, the State Department ended all UNRWA funding after concluding the organization was unsustainable. The UNRWA denied this and promised to look for new donors.
In September, a spokesman for the Russian mission to the UN , Fedor Strzhizhovskiy, said the US administration's decision will complicate the middle East peace process. He also pledged continued Russian assistance to the UNRWA.
The UNRWA supports 5.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The agency's services encompass education, health care, camp infrastructure and emergency aid including in times of armed conflict.
