Austria is suspending payments to the United Nations' Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, pending a full investigation into accusations that its employees were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Austrian foreign ministry said on Monday.
Alexander Schallenberg, the Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria © Mena Today
Austria is suspending payments to the United Nations' Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, pending a full investigation into accusations that its employees were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Austrian foreign ministry said on Monday.
"We call on UNRWA and the United Nations to conduct a comprehensive, swift and complete investigation into the allegations," the ministry said in a statement.
Austria joins Britain, Germany, the United States, Australia and Canada, among others, in pausing funding to the aid agency, a critical source of support for people in Gaza.
Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun has called for historic direct talks with longtime foe Israel since war erupted a month ago - a month in which Israel's military has forced more than a million Lebanese to flee, levelled parts of Beirut and triggered sectarian friction.
Israeli and Lebanese officials are expected to meet in Washington next week as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to calm weeks of Israeli fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah that has threatened to derail a fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire.
There is an unwritten rule in any self-respecting chancellery: before commenting on a complex military operation in a region you do not understand, make sure you know what you are talking about. Jean-Noël Barrot, France's Foreign Minister, appears never to have heard of it.
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