UNRWA funding remains hot topic in Swiss parliament
UNRWA offers basic services such as healthcare to roughly 5.9 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
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Listening: UNRWA funding remains hot topic in Swiss parliament
A Swiss parliamentary committee has postponed a decision on whether Switzerland should stop funding the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.
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Ständeratskommission vertagt Entscheid zu Zahlungen an UNRWA
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The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee decided by 10 votes to 3 to wait until after next week’s UN meetings on the subject, which are chaired by Switzerland, to decide on related parliamentary questions, it was reported on Friday. Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis had submitted a corresponding request.
According to the committee, the reason for the suspension on the decision regarding Swiss payments to UNRWA is that international talks in the coming weeks could bring new political and legal aspects to light.
On November 21, the committee will decide on this question on the basis of the additional information, it said.
In September, parliamentarians in the lower house of parliament – the House of Representatives – decided that Switzerland should stop funding UNRWA.
Translated from German by DeepL/sb
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