Following down-to-wire talks, UN members have adopted a budget for 2021 that was higher than that proposed by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and has been strongly opposed by the Trump administration for giving money to to celebrate the outcome of the 2001 conference in the South. Africa they called anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.
The DA’s regular operating budget is usually agreed by consensus before Christmas, but this year controversial negotiations continued to push diplomats into New Year’s Eve. While many countries that had been affected by a number of issues believed that a consensus had been reached, the United States called for a vote for funding to adopt the Durban Declaration and Program of Action adopted at the World Conference on to identify Racism.
DA Israel Ambassador Gilad Erdan
(Photo: DA web TV)
The $ 3.231 billion budget was then agreed by the UN General Assembly last Thursday with a 167-2 vote with the United States and Israel voting “no.”
U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft accused the world group of extending the “shameful legacy of hate, anti-Semitism, and anti-Israel bias” by supporting an official event during the next General Assembly session, which begins in September, marking the Durban result.
The Durban conference dominated conflict over the Middle East and the legacy of slavery, and the U.S. and Israel walked out at the meeting over a draft resolution that Israel named for its criticism and resembled Zionism with hatred -determination. That language was omitted in the final documents.
Craft said it was outrageous even though the General Assembly resolutely affirmed “two decades of dishonesty and division,” the Trump administration took Israel and Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, uniting and separating age separation between people. “
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft in February
(Photo: AP)
On December. 29 – long after the budget is usually accepted – General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir had written to member states urging them to “make every effort to overcome disagreements or controversies. “
He warned that “if member states do not reach an agreement, the impact on the work of the United Nations will be very severe.” require all employees to suspend all activities as a minimum to ensure the safety of employees and the assets of the UN.
The budget adopted two days later was slightly higher than the regular budget of $ 3.07 billion for 2020, and was higher than the general secretary of $ 2.99 billion Guterres proposed in October.
The DA’s regular budget is funded by a sliding scale of assessments from member states, with the United States, as the world’s leading economic power, paying the largest share, 25%.
Guterres wrote to 193 UN member states in September that UN activity was under severe pressure due to declining payments and a “deepening liquidity crisis,” exacerbated by the whole epidemic. COVID-19 release.
The UN General Assembly during a session in 2017
(Photo: AP)
Commenting on the 2021 budget, UN deputy defendant Farhan Haq said on Monday, “The secretary-general continues to call on member states to pay in full and on time to prevent to address the liquidity problems we face in recent years. “