Zakaria al-Agha, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee and head of the refugee department in the organization, claims that the ongoing budget deficit of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is not due to economic reasons but rather aims to close UNRWA.
At a meeting of the UNRWA Advisory Committee at the organization's headquarters in Amman, Arra said that the United Statesdecision to reduce the amount of aid to UNRWA in 2018 is a "serious blow" and threatens its future activity. He called for the convening of an international conference at the level of foreign ministers in order to formulate a way of dealing with the challenges facing UNRWA, stressing that the PLO is determined to maintain the activities of UNRWA and to support the organization until a "just solution" to UN resolutions is found, particularly Resolution 194, which sought to define principles for a settlement at the end of Israel's War of Independence.