Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is set to fly to Rome on Wednesday to co-chair a conference of international partners in support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as the agency awaits a crisis in its ability to provide humanitarian services following large budget cuts by the United States. Foreign Minister Shoukry will co-chair the conference along with the foreign ministers of Jordan and Sweden. Wednesday's meeting follows UNRWA media statements last week saying that the agency was facing an "unprecedented financial crisis," calling for global mobilization to find a solution to the crisis that will disrupt food, health care and educational aid to millions of Palestinians. The fiscal crisis was triggered by a January decision by US President Donald Trump to cut the agency's funding by more than half, holding an estimated $65 million of a planned $125 million aid package from the organization. The US is the UNRWA's largest donor, contributing nearly a third of its budget. In an official statement on Wednesday, Egypt's foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said that Egypt, which currently chairs the agency's advisory committee, continues to oppose the "politicization of humanitarian issues" through “the importance of not linking financial contributions for humanitarian purposes with demands of a political nature." Abu Zeid also called for the abstention from any further decisions that may jeopardize humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, especially as the time window of opportunity to secure donor funding is closing. “Egypt's continued support for the agency's work as one of the tools in dealing with the refugee question, being a pivotal final-status issue, affirms the need to preserve the work of UNRWA and to maintain incoming contributions until the cause is definitively settled,” the statement read. Abu Zeid stressed that continuing the UNRWA's mandate in such a volatile time for the region is considered a “necessity rather than a luxury." According to the spokesman, Egypt's participation in Wednesday's meeting emphasizes the priority the country attaches to solving the Palestinian refugee question as part of its historical responsibilities towards the Palestinian cause.
