US halts all foreign aid, except for Israel, Egypt
The US State Department has issued a halt to all existing foreign assistance and paused new aid, making exceptions only for emergency food aid and for military funding for Israel, the US’s strongest ally in the Middle East and Egypt, according to a leaked memo.
There was no indication of a similar exemption for Ukraine, which largely relies on US weapons assistance in its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.
As per the memo dated 24 January, “Consistent with the President's Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid, this ALDAC pauses all new obligations of funding, pending a review, for foreign assistance programs funded by or through the Department and USAID”.
However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has approved “waivers of the pause… with respect to foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt and administrative expenses, including salaries, necessary to administer foreign military financing”.
The order from the US State Department on Friday also includes exceptions for emergency food programs, but not health programs that supporters say provide vital, life-saving services.
Health GAP (Global Access Project), a nonprofit organization campaigning for access to life-saving treatment for people with HIV worldwide, released a statement declaring, “This is cruel and will be deadly for the AIDS response if not immediately reversed”.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed that no department, agency, or entity shall provide foreign assistance funded by or through the Department and USAID without the Secretary of State's authorization or the authorization of his designee.
Former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner said, “If there’s one thing our government is 100% committed to on a bipartisan basis, it’s funding the genocide of Palestinians”.
According to a report by Brown University’s Watson Institute, the United States has spent $22.76 billion in support of Israel’s war on Gaza and operations against the Houthis in Yemen, with aid to Israel consisting of military financing, weapons sales, and transfers from US weapons stockpiles.
