US freezes almost all aid except arms for two ME countries

#freezes #aid #arms #countries

The United States, the world’s largest donor frozen almost all foreign aid on Friday, only for emergency food and exemptions for military funding for two Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent an internal memo a few days after President Donald Trump took office, expressing his commitment to the “US First” policy to strictly restrict overseas aid.

The memo for the staff seen by the AFP said, “No new fund will be responsible for the expansion of new awards or existing awards unless each proposed new award or extension reviews it. Don’t be approved. “

It seems that this order affects everything from development aid to military aid – including Ukraine, who has acquired billions of dollars of weapons under Trump’s predecessor, Biden because it seeks to repel the Russian invasion. –

This directive also means that at least several months of US funding for PEPFar should be stopped, it is an anti -HIV/AIDS move that in developing countries, mostly in Africa to treat the disease. Anti -retroot buys viral drugs.

Launched in 2003 during President George W. Bush’s era, PEPFar is given the help of about 26 million lives, and recently gaining widespread support on discriminatory lines in Washington.

But in the memo, Egypt is clearly exempted from military aid, which has received US defense funds since the signing of a peace deal in 1979, and another country in the region.

Rubio also exempted US cooperation in emergency food aid, which the United States is giving after crises around the world, including Sudan and Syria.

Lawmakers of the rival Democratic Party said that more than 20 million people rely on medicines through PEPFAR and 63 million people with US financing, including the net, depended on the efforts of malaria.

“For years, Republicans in the Congress rejected it as a lack of US credibility over countries like China, Russia and Iran,” said Gregory Max, a Democrat and Representative of the House Foreign Relations Committee. Louis Frankl.

He wrote in a letter, “Our reputation is now on the line, and it seems that we will run away from American promises with our partners around the world.”

Washington has long taken advantage of aid as a tool for its foreign policy, saying it cares about development and creating a contradiction with China, which is mainly anxious about natural resources. Is

Max and Frank also noted that foreign aid was allocated by the Congress and said they would try to implement it.

‘The results of life or death’

The memo allows the State Department to temporarily fund other exceptions and staff salaries and other administrative expenses.

The memo said that all foreign aid should be reviewed within 85 days.

Rubio – who was supportive of Rubio – as a senator, justified – wrote that it is impossible for the new administration to guess whether the current foreign aid promises are not “diplomats, effective and President Trump.” Foreign policy. “

The United States has long been the world’s largest donor in terms of dollars, though many European countries, especially in Scandinavia, give significantly more as a percentage of their economies.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which advises industrialized countries, the United States provided more than $ 64 billion overseas development assistance in 2023, which had records available.

Trump signed an executive order on Monday as he took office, which suspended foreign aid for 90 days, but it was not immediately clear how it would be implemented.

The Anti -Poverty Group Oxfam said Trump is abandoning a long -standing consensus in the United States for foreign aid.

Oxfam US President Abe Maxman said in a statement, “Human and development help is only 1 percent of the federal budget; it saves lives, fights diseases, teaches millions of children and reduces poverty. “

“Suspending many of these programs and finally cutting can lead to life or death for countless children and families who are going through a crisis,” he said.