The State Department has notified UNESCO of the United States’ decision to rejoin after withdrawing in 2017.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma sent a letter to the UN organization June 8 that is presumed to contain a plan of how the country will come back on as a voting member, according to a source cited by Axios. In an email obtained by the outlet, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay called a meeting between member states slated for Monday to discuss “urgent strategic information.”
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Then-President Donald Trump withdrew from the organization in 2017 because of its “anti-Israel bias.” However the U.S. was shaping to join again back in December when Congress passed a bill that allotted over $540 million towards the debt it owed to UNESCO since then-President Obama stopped paying dues in 2011. The State Department is permitted to use the money until the Fall 2025, when it will expire as Azoulay’s term ends. In that same bill, $3.3 billion in military aid was provided to Israel.
President Ronald Reagan was the first to announce U.S. withdrawal in 1983, followed by Margaret Thatcher’s United Kingdom. Then, George W. Bush reentered in 2003, and the country paid its dues to remain a voting member until 2011. Once the debts collected between 2011 and 2017 are paid, it will cost the U.S. roughly $100 million a year to remain a voting member.
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UNESCO did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
Israel is not an UNESCO member state since it also left shortly after the U.S. withdrew in 2017. Palestine, however, has been a member since 2011.
