Cairo, September 12 (RHC)-- Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki says a decision by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to halt funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was an attack on international law.

“The U.S. administration is attacking the rights of the Palestinian people and international law,” Maliki said at a meeting of the Arab League in Cairo on Tuesday convened to discuss the issue.

Late last month, the Trump's administration decided to cancel all US funding to the UNRWA, part of a policy to impose maximum pressure on the Palestinians to satisfy the Israeli regime's interests and Zionist constituencies in the US.

The Donald Trump administration had already announced a steady stream of cuts in aid for Palestinians.  The U.S. State Department announced in January that it would withhold $65 million of a $125 million aid installment to UNRWA.  The State Department also announced that Washington has canceled over $200 million in funds for the Palestinian Authority, leading Palestinian officials to denounce the move as “blackmail.”

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on August 31st that the recent U.S. decision in freezing the funding of the UNRWA is a "flagrant assault" against Palestinians.

“The consecutive American decisions represent a flagrant assault against the Palestinian people and a defiance of the UN resolutions,” Nabil Abu Rdainah said, adding: “Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution.”