US pulls its US$2 million in funding for UN’s new counterterrorism office over Russian chief
US Ambassador Nikki Haley chastised the year-old agency for closing part of its first conference to the public
The United States cut a US$2 million pledge for the United Nations Office of Counterterrorism on Wednesday and downgraded its presence at a conference on the issue, the Trump administration’s latest move to use funding to push for reform of the world body.
The funding cut was made over a decision by the UN counterterrorism chief, a former Russian diplomat with more than 30 years service, to close part of an inaugural conference to non-governmental interest groups, a US official speaking on condition of anonymity said.
When asked if the decision had anything to do with the fact that the counterterrorism chief, Vladimir Voronkov, is Russian, the US official said that “it matters” and that Voronkov had come under “tremendous pressure by his home country” on the conference.
Voronkov’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in a statement that there was no precedent for excluding the interest groups, known as “civil society”, from a conference hosted by the UN Secretary-General in the General Assembly.
“There is no reasonable explanation for why the UN would seek to censor this conference, except that it caved to political pressure from a handful of nefarious countries with no credibility on countering terrorism – like Russia, Syria, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela – and for which restricting access and blocking civil society participation is the norm,” Haley said.