Aboul Gheit condemns Iran’s intervention in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq

CAIRO – 27 September 2018: Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that the U.S. allowed Iran following the 2015 deal to restore a big amount of frozen money, adding that Iran funds the IRGC before providingthe people’s basic needs.

Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is a controversial branch of Iran’s Armed Forces. It has been fighting outside Iran in support of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In 2015, Iran signeda nuclear program deal with the U.S., UK, France, China, Russia, and Germany. Under the deal, Iran managed to gain access to over $100 billion in frozen assets.

In an interview with DMC on Wednesday, Aboul Gheit said that Syria has lost manyof its lands since the beginning of the Syrian war, until Russia intervened. He affirmed rejectingIran’s intervention in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Concerning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Aboul Gheit said that the U.S. has completely stopped its $350 million donation to the relief agency, out of the latter’s $1.2 billion total fund.

He added that thanks to the support of other nations, the UNRWA’s deficit has decreased to $180 million.

On September 1, the U.S. administration decided to stop all funding to the agency tasked with supporting Palestinian refugees, a step that was widely condemned.