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Trump Tightens Iran Sanctions, Ends Funding to UNRWA and Withdraws From Human Rights Council
|ByMatis Glenn2 MIN READ
Published Feb. 4, 2025, 3:47 PM
US News

By Matis Glenn:
President Donald Trump tightened sanctions on Iran that were relaxed under his predecessor, withdrew the U.S. from the United Nations Human Rights Council, and ended funding for UNRWA, in a series of executive orders he signed Tuesday.
Trump’s orders come as the president prepares to meet Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Trump described the “maximum pressure” order on Iran as “very tough,” according to Reuters. Trump charges former President Joe Biden with being soft on Iran, allowing it to ignore oil-export sanctions, which Trump says emboldened Tehran by allowing it to sell oil to fund a nuclear weapons program and to arm terror groups across the Middle East, like Hamas and Hezbollah.
Sources shared a memo with Politico Monday stating that, according to the Trump administration, the Human Rights Council “has not fulfilled its purpose and continues to be used as a protective body for countries committing horrific human rights violations.”
Last month, the Daily Mail quoted two Trump administration officials as saying that the President would enact such a policy towards UNRWA.
“The United States and American citizens have been some of the most generous people in the entire world,” one policy adviser for Trump told the Mail. “But at this point, we have to understand that foreign policy is domestic policy, and if this is not aligned with our interests, then Uncle Sam should not be opening up his pocketbook any longer.”
Trump ended funding for UNRWA in 2018 during his first term, but it was reinstated under the Biden administration.
Israel has proven links between UNRWA and Palestinian terrorism since the Oct. 7 massacre, including conclusive evidence that some UNRWA employees worked as terrorists for Hamas andparticipated in the southern assault. Terrorists were also found operating within UNRWA buildings and schools. Before Oct. 7, Israel uncovered a terrorism-supporting curriculum being taught at UNRWA schools in Gaza.
As part of Trump’s reassessment of how the U.S. relates to the U.N., the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will undergo a review due to its history of bias against Israel.
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