GOF UNLIKELY TO MAKE SIZABLE CONTRIBUTION TO UNRWA

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 002765 SIPDIS DEPT FOR PRM/ANE-ROBERT WARD E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/22/2015 TAGS: PREF KPAL FR SUBJECT: GOF UNLIKELY TO MAKE SIZABLE CONTRIBUTION TO UNRWA EMERGENCY APPEAL REF: A. STATE 69083 ¶B. PARIS 2483 ¶C. STATE 65023 Classified By: A/DCM Josiah Rosenblatt, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). (C) We conveyed ref (A) guidance on the U.S. position on the next UNRWA Commissioner-General (CG) to MFA UN/Middle East issues action officer Alice Guitton April 20, reiterating the need for a strong French contribution to the 2005 UNRWA emergency appeal. Guitton welcomed our clarification of U.S. views, and stressed the GoF hope that SYG Annan would move quickly to name a new CG. On a potential French contribution to the 2005 emergency appeal, she stressed her earlier assertion (ref b) that the near-doubling in the French contribution to UNRWA's 2005 general budget (to 5 million euros) made it unlikely that France would have a sizable contribution for this year's emergency appeal. She clarified that the timing of the UNRWA emergency appeal was not so much a factor as were the budgetary limitations of the GoF. Guitton concluded that the GoF was looking for available humanitarian funding resources to respond to the 2005 emergency appeal, but its overriding objective was to maintain the increase in the French regular budget contribution to UNRWA into 2006 and beyond. WOLFF