By BRADLEY KLAPPER BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic
The Obama administration warned the U.N. cultural agency to stay out of the question of Palestinian statehood or face the consequences, as American lawmakers were threatening to withhold tens of millions of dollars in U.S. funding if the organization agrees to admit Palestine as a member before an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is reached.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called UNESCO’s deliberation “inexplicable” at a time when the Palestinian bid for U.N. recognition and membership was being examined by the Security Council, the global body’s top decision-making organ. And she said such an action would be a setback for Mideast peace hopes.
“I think that that is a very odd procedure indeed and would urge the governing body of UNESCO to think again before proceeding with that vote,” Clinton told reporters in the Dominican Republic, where she was attending a regional economic conference.
Categories: Americas, Asia, Economics, Human Rights, Middle East, Palestine
Normaly I suppose this would be called ‘blackmail’, but as its own money is involved it could just be called ‘beware of strings attached’…