The Trump administration will announce a decision within days to cancel funding for a UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees, several people familiar with the decision said on Friday.
The administration pledged $60 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in January but withheld another $65 million pending a review. That remaining $65 million now will be canceled, the sources said.
The withdrawal of the US funding will be a blow to an agency that currently supports more than 5 million people in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza.
The move, which comes a week after Washington cut more than $200 million in US aid to the Palestinians, is likely to heighten tensions between the Palestinian leadership and the Trump administration.
Senior members of the Trump administration have been overtly critical of UNRWA, including national security adviser John Bolton. The Palestinian leadership has angered the White House by boycotting its peace efforts since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the embassy there in a reversal of decades of US policy.
“We have no announcements on UNRWA funding at this time,” a State…