Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi, on Thursday, along with his Swedish counterpart Tobias Billstrom co-chaired a ministerial meeting to support the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) and Syrian refugees. The ministerial meeting, held in New York on the on the sidelines of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly, was attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General. The meeting stressed the need to mobilize necessary support to the UNRWA to enable it conduct its tasks to serve about 5.7 million Palestinian refugees residing in its five operation areas. ” The agency is a food on the table for families who would otherwise go hungry, medical care for millions who would otherwise succumb to pain and illness, and a classroom for hundreds of thousands of boys and girls who would otherwise be denied their right to education,” Safadi said during the meeting. He expressed his hope that today’s meeting will provide the funding the agency needs to fill the deficit in its budget for this year, and that this meeting will help find mechanisms to ensure that the agency does not have to manage its operations on a monthly basis. Jordan and Sweden have worked together since 2018 to mobilise financial and political support for UNRWA.

Source: Jordan News Agency