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PLO denounces US freezing USD 65 mln in aid to UNRWA

GAZA, Jan 17 (KUNA) -- Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) denounced Wednesday US decision to freeze USD 65 million from the financial aid given to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
A statement by PLO's Executive Committee member, Zakaria Al-Agha, stated that this decision aims at liquidating the Palestinian cause, without putting any consideration to the international community and to UN's resolutions related to the Palestinian refugees' issue and tasking UNRWA to provide care and services to the refugees.
Al-Agha, who also heads PLO's refugees department, said the US is conducting a "blackmail strategy" toward the Palestinians' leadership by freezing the aid, after they rejected US decision considering Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the statement added.
He pointed out that the aid given for Palestinian refugees is not charity; its considered as a moral responsibility from the international community toward the refugees who have been displaced from their homes for seven decades after the international community has failed to implement UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948, which calls for their right to return to their homes.
Al-Agha called for a joint international effort to defy Washinton's illegitimate plans considering Jerusalem as the capital of the Israel and placing its embassy in it, in addition to "liquidate the UN agency." UNRWA is not a Palestinian institution but a UN one, which provides vital services to refugees suffering from difficult living and humanitarian conditions, he added. (end) wab.mys