Iran FM ridicules US, Israel exit from UNESCO

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif mocked America and Israel’s decision to leave the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

“The Trump regime – along with the Israeli regime – today officially withdrew from UNESCO,” Zarif posted on Twitter.

The minister listed all the agreements the US has left including the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Trans-Pacific Partnership TPP and the Paris Climate Convention, adding: “Is anything left for the Trump Administration and its client regime to withdraw from? Perhaps from planet Earth altogether?”

The United States and Israel officially left the UNESCO at midnight on Tuesday.

Israel repeatedly threatened to withdraw from UNESCO after the UN agency adopted several resolutions asserting Palestinian rights in the cities of Jerusalem and Hebron.

In October 2017, UNESCO decided to place the city of Hebron and the Haram al-Ibrahimi Mosque, which is revered by both Muslims and Jews, on the World Heritage List.

Also in 2017, UNESCO voted in favour of a resolution that denied any connection between Al-Aqsa Mosque and Judaism; Israel relies on such a claim in recognising the Muslim holy site as the “Temple Mount”.

In May 2018, UNESCO ruled that Israel is an “occupying power” and condemned illegal Israeli activity in occupied East Jerusalem a month later. Another resolution was adopted by UNESCO in June 2018 that considered Jerusalem’s Old City and its walls as among the endangered sites of the world heritage.

In response, Israel and the US have cut funding to UNESCO on multiple occasions, accusing it of “anti-Semitism”.

Jerusalem remains at the heart of the decades-long Middle East conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem – occupied by Israel since 1967 – might one day serve as the capital of a Palestinian state.

READ: UNESCO should cry no tears over Israel’s departure