US' UNESCO withdrawal an irresponsible move

The Donald Trump administration will withdraw the United States from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement on Tuesday.

The UN agency "works to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy", Bruce said. "UNESCO's decision to admit the 'State of Palestine' as a Member State is highly problematic, contrary to US policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization."

The US withdrew from UNESCO in 2017 during Trump's first administration citing similar reasons, though the situation has changed profoundly compared with eight years ago, and UNESCO today constitutes a rare forum for consensus on concrete and action-oriented multilateralism.