Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN in New York on September 30, 2015.
(REPORT) — President Donald Trump is planning to threaten defunding of the United Nations, including at least 40% decrease in funds provided to the organization, centering on complaints about the Palestinian Authority having membership in certain UN bodies.
There are two competing draft proposals under consideration for doing this, which demand that the US fully defund all UN organizations which give the Palestinians full membership. This would be a totally meaningless measure, however, as the US had already done so years ago.
There are also mentions of possible cuts to anything abortion related, and demands that the UN cut ties with any organization “which could be seen as” helping circumvent sanctions against either Iran or North Korea. A lot of the wording in the reports is unclear on exactly what that would entail.
One of the two draft orders calls for a “moratorium on new multilateral treaties,” and mandates a full US review of every single treaty they are party to with more than one nation, seeking recommendations on withdrawing from them. There were exclusions on the review for “national security” treaties and those related to extradition, but it is unclear exactly how that would be interpreted.
Both versions propose substantial cuts to US funding for the UN, as the US provides a large portion of the international body’s annual funding, though the multilateral treaties proposal looks at this as a jumping off point for a wholesale shift in US diplomatic agreements going much, much farther.
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