The United States Suspends UNESCO Payments

The United States, which never liked UNESCO much, did not delay Monday in penalizing the organization for welcoming the state of Palestine, announcing the immediate suspension of its payments. Eight years after reintegrating into the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization after a two-decade absence, Washington carried out its threat: the suspension of its contribution to UNESCO’s budget. “We were to have made a sixty million dollar payment to UNESCO in November, and we will not be making that payment,” Victoria Nuland, spokesperson for the State Department, declared to the press. Ms. Nuland reminded that the Obama administration had been bound by two laws adopted in 1990 and 1994 by Congress. The United States, great ally of Israel, had forbidden all financing of any U.N. agency that admitted Palestine as a full member in the absence of a peace agreement in the Middle East.

The White House reminded that it had been opposed to the addition of the Palestinians before an agreement with Israel. “Today’s vote at UNESCO to admit the Palestinian Authority as a member is premature and undermines the international community’s shared goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” affirmed Jay Carney, spokesperson for Barack Obama. “The road to peace is through direct negotiations. And it’s very important that both Palestinians and the Israelis take steps that bring them closer to returning to the negotiating table so they can resolve the issues between them,” he added.

The United States also fought against the addition of Palestine in the U.N. Security Council. Washington indicated that it would have vetoed the same way if the Council had approved the Palestinian request. The suspension of American financing constitutes a harsh blow for UNESCO, the U.S. assuring 22 percent of its budget with a contribution of about $80 million each year. The Director General of UNESCO Irina Bokova recognized that she was “worried about the stability of its budget.” “We will need to work on practical solutions to preserve UNESCO’s financial resources,” also worried the Security General Ban Ki-Moon.

Denouncing excessive third world-ist and management problems, the U.S. had previously left UNESCO in 1984 under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, followed at that time by Margaret Thatcher’s United Kingdom. Washington finished by rejoining the organization in October 2003, under the presidency of George W. Bush, explaining satisfaction with the follow-up of internal reforms.

The spokesperson for the Department of State recognized that Washington was going to lose its influence within UNESCO from the act of suspending its financing. “Under UNESCO’s constitution, a member state will have no vote in the general conference if it gets more than two years in arrears in its contribution,” declared Ms. Nuland. Ms. Nuland expressed doubt that the same scenario would have been reproduced if the Palestinians had been admitted to other parts of the United Nations. “Not paying our dues into these organizations could severely restrict and reduce our ability to influence them, our ability to act within them, and we think this affects U.S. interests,” she added, expressing the desire to negotiate with Congress in order to find a solution.