The United States delegation to UNESCO announced here Friday that it will pay its outstanding dues to the United Nations organization. Ambassador William Jones, chief U.S. delegate, said that America’s decision to pay the outstanding $43.11 million was greeted by the organization’s General Conference meeting here “with pleasure and satisfaction.”
A UNESCO spokesman said he expected the funds to be transferred within a couple of months. The decision to pay the outstanding American dues for 1975 and 1976 was recently voted by Congress. The U.S. decided to stop paying its dues in October 1974 when the UNESCO General Conference adopted a number of anti-Israeli resolutions, condemned Israel for its archaeological diggings in Jerusalem and for its educational system in the occupied territories and barred Israel from all its regional groups.
At its recent Nairobi conference, UNESCO managed to find a compromise solution enabling Israel to attend the European regional group and avoiding a debate on racism and Zionism.
Practically all attending delegations, including the Eastern bloc and the non-aligned countries, privately expressed relief at America’s decision to become a full-paying member. These delegations feared that a continued American financial boycott would have endangered further UNESCO activities.
Israeli diplomats were also partially satisfied as the U.S. delegation is Israel’s main backer at UNESCO meetings and a loss of America’s voting rights would have indirectly prejudiced Israeli interests.
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