US embassy cable - 05PARIS2765

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 002765 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR PRM/ANE-ROBERT WARD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/22/2015 
TAGS: PREF, KPAL, FR 
SUBJECT: GOF UNLIKELY TO MAKE SIZABLE CONTRIBUTION TO UNRWA 
EMERGENCY APPEAL 
 
REF: A. STATE 69083 
     B. PARIS 2483 
     C. STATE 65023 
 
Classified By: A/DCM Josiah Rosenblatt, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
(C) We conveyed ref (A) guidance on the U.S. position on the 
next UNRWA Commissioner-General (CG) to MFA UN/Middle East 
issues action officer Alice Guitton April 20, reiterating the 
need for a strong French contribution to the 2005 UNRWA 
emergency appeal.  Guitton welcomed our clarification of U.S. 
views, and stressed the GoF hope that SYG Annan would move 
quickly to name a new CG.  On a potential French contribution 
to the 2005 emergency appeal, she stressed her earlier 
assertion (ref b) that the near-doubling in the French 
contribution to UNRWA's 2005 general budget (to 5 million 
euros) made it unlikely that France would have a sizable 
contribution for this year's emergency appeal.  She clarified 
that the timing of the UNRWA emergency appeal was not so much 
a factor as were the budgetary limitations of the GoF. 
Guitton concluded that the GoF was looking for available 
humanitarian funding resources to respond to the 2005 
emergency appeal, but its overriding objective was to 
maintain the increase in the French regular budget 
contribution to UNRWA into 2006 and beyond. 
WOLFF