Trump pulls US out of UN cultural agency Unesco for second time
The withdrawal from the Paris-based agency, which was founded after World War 2 to promote peace through international co-operation in education, science and culture, will take effect at the end of next year.
The move is in line with the Trump administration's broader 'America first' foreign policy, which includes a deep scepticism of multilateral groups, including the UN, the World Trade Organisation and the Nato alliance.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said Unesco 'supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes totally out of step with the commonsense policies Americans voted for'.
The state department accused Unesco of supporting 'a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America first foreign policy'.
It said its decision to admit the Palestinians as a member state was 'highly problematic, contrary to US policy and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric'.
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