The Obama administration has cut off funding for the UN cultural agency after its member countries defied US threats and approved the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's bid for full membership.
The vote to admit Palestine as a member of Unesco, which only the United States and 13 other countries opposed, triggered a long-standing congressional ban on US funding to UN bodies that recognise Palestine as a state before an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is reached.
The State Department said a $60 million (£38m) payment to Unesco scheduled for November would not be made as a result.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland asserted that Palestine's growing international recognition "undermines our shared goal of peace in the Middle East," insisting that Washington still supports Palestinian statehood if it is "realised through direct negotiations" with Tel Aviv.
But the Netanyahu administration has all but killed off those talks by refusing to freeze its expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.
Morning Star
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