Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told Reuters his country, which hosts more than 2 million of the over 5 million registered refugees whom the agency supports, would continue to rally donor support to ease the acute financial crunch faced by the agency.

The U.S. announced on Friday that it would no longer support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The US was helping UNRWA with about $ 360 million.

"It will only consolidate an environment of despair that would ultimately create fertile grounds for further tension. Politically it will also further hurt the credibility of peacemaking efforts."

Safadi said a meeting on September 27 in New York in the United Nations, which the kingdom was co-sponsoring with Japan, the European Union, Sweden, and Turkiye, would seek to "rally political and financial support for the agency".

"We will do everything possible to ensure that UNRWA gets the funds it needs to continue offering its services to Palestinian refugees," Safadi added.

Hundreds of Palestinian gathered yesterday in front of the UNRWA center Jordan's capital, Amman, protested the decision of the United States. Demonstrators said the decision would affect thousands of asylum seekers, including women and children negatively.

Established in 1949 by the UN General Assembly to help Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Palestinian refugees in Gaza, UNRWA provides education and social assistance to more than 5 million people in the region. (ILKHA)