Qatari charities yesterday signed an $8.5 million aid deal with a number of UN organisations to support the international organisation’s work in Syria, Al Jazeera has reported.
World Food Programme, UNICEF, World Health Organisation, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will be the main beneficiaries of the funds.
The UN has strong cooperation with Qatar Charity, which is providing some of the donation, including a number of joint projects being implemented in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the secretary-general of the UN, said previously.
Qatar Charity is one of the institutions that Saudi Arabia, the UAE and a number of other states have demanded Qatar close down due to its alleged links to terrorism. A number of countries have severed ties with Doha demanding it close a number of its key institutions and that it cut its ties with Iran.
Qatar has so far refused to agree to the demands saying it has no links with terrorists and that the demands set are an infringement of its sovereign right to self rule.