Abbas, Jordan king discuss ‘necessity’ of supporting Palestinian refugee agency

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah discussed during their meeting today “the necessity” of international support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the UN body that supports Palestinian refugees, the official Jordanian Petra news agency reports.

Last week, Foreign Policy reported that Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace envoy, had pushed Jordan to revoke the refugee status of some 2 million Palestinian in its territory so that UNRWA would cease its operations there, citing Palestinian officials.

“The meeting [between Abbas and Abdullah] dealt with the necessity of the international community supporting UNRWA to enable it to continue to provide education, health and humanitarian services to refugees,” the Petra report says.

— Adam Rasgon