New york: Palestine's envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, called on the international community to strengthen political and financial support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and step up efforts to achieve a just, lasting, and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue.
According to Qatar News Agency, addressing the UN General Assembly's annual pledging conference for UNRWA in New York, Mansour renewed his call for a just and lasting solution to the Palestine refugee issue based on UN General Assembly Resolution 194. He urged the international community to muster the political will and courage needed to end what he described as a longstanding historical injustice.
Mansour highlighted that the suffering of Palestinian refugees had reached unprecedented levels in recent years, particularly in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, amid what he described as genocide and Israel's ongoing military offensive. He emphasized UNRWA's vital role in alleviating the suffering of Palestine refugees and providing essential services despite systematic Israeli targeting of the agency, its personnel, and facilities, alongside an unprecedented financial crisis threatening its operations.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted the dire humanitarian conditions faced by Palestinian refugees, particularly in the Gaza Strip, underscoring UNRWA's indispensable role in meeting the needs of millions of Palestine refugees across its five fields of operation and supporting regional stability. He warned that the agency's financial crisis, coupled with restrictions on its operations, threatens its ability to fulfill the mandate overwhelmingly renewed by the General Assembly six months ago.
Guterres asserted that no other organization has the capacity to replace UNRWA or carry out its mandate. He called for urgent political and financial support to ensure the agency can continue its operations and enable the international community to meet its responsibilities toward Palestine refugees. He emphasized that such support would help create the conditions for a just and lasting peace based on a two-state solution.