US lawmaker links UN funding to Palestinian issue

WASHINGTON - A senior US Republican lawmaker announced on Tuesday she was seeking to cut off US funds to any United Nations organization that embraces an upgrade to the Palestinians' diplomatic status this autumn.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen included the cutoff clause in legislation that would change US financing of the United Nations so that Washington could choose the programs it wants to fund there, and the ones it does not.

The United States is the biggest contributor to the UN budget under a system of mandatory contributions from member states. Washington pays about 22 percent of the core UN budget and 25 percent of its peacekeeping costs.

Ros-Lehtinen, a harsh UN critic, has been threatening for months to introduce a bill to move US contributions to a "voluntary" basis. She has done so despite warnings from the Obama administration that it would oppose the measure -- warnings the US State Department renewed on Tuesday. The Democratic-run Senate is also unlikely to pass the bill.

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=236089