Washington announces leaving UNESCO again

PARIS — The United States announced on Tuesday it will again pull out of the UN's educational, scientific and cultural agency because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias, only two years after rejoining.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the withdrawal was linked to UNESCO's perceived agenda to "advance divisive social and cultural causes". She added in a statement that UNESCO's decision "to admit the 'State of Palestine' as a member state is highly problematic, contrary to US policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization."

This will be the third time that the United States has left UNESCO, which is based in Paris, and the second time during a Trump administration. President Donald Trump had already pulled out during his first term and the United States returned after a five-year absence after the Biden administration applied to rejoin the organization.

The decision will take effect at the end of December 2026.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said that she regretted the US decision to withdraw from the organization, but added the move had come as no surprise.

"However regrettable, this announcement was expected, and UNESCO has prepared for it," Azoulay said.

The US withdrawal is likely to affect UNESCO because the US provides a notable share of the agency's budget. But the organization has diversified its funding sources in recent years and the US contribution has decreased, representing only 8 percent of the agency's total budget.

The Trump administration in 2017 announced that the US would withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias. That decision took effect a year later. The US and Israel stopped financing UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011.

The US previously pulled out of UNESCO under the Reagan administration in 1984 because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and advancing the interests of the erstwhile Soviet Union. It rejoined in 2003 during George W. Bush's presidency.

AGENCIES VIA XINHUA