Saudi Arabia pledges $50 mln to UN Palestinian refugee agency

Saudi Arabia pledged $50 million in aid on Thursday to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the Kingdom’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf announced in a meeting with the agency’s Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Al-Assaf affirmed Saudi Arabia’s continued political and financial support of UNRWA, according to a statement released by the agency.

The announcement comes almost a year after the Kingdom made another $50 million donation to the UNRWA program budget, and in addition to the country’s contributions to UNRWA infrastructure projects across the agency’s five areas of operations.

“The renewed and generous donation by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is of great significance to our Agency. Throughout the summer, as we prepared for the opening of the new scholastic year, we rehabilitated dozens of UNRWA schools with Saudi funding,” Krahenbuhl said in a statement.

The donation will allow UNRWA to continue to provide education for 532,000 students, as well as provide other services to Palestinian refugees.