UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urges support for WHO after Trump’s threat

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged support for the World Health Organization (WHO) after US President Donald Trump threatened to freeze American funding.

“It is my belief that the World Health Organization must be supported, as it is absolutely critical to the world’s efforts to win the war against COVID-19,” Xinhua news agency quoted Antonio Guterres as saying in a statement on Wednesday.

“This virus is unprecedented in our lifetime and requires an unprecedented response. Obviously, in such conditions, it is possible that the same facts have had different readings by different entities,” Antonio Guterres said, in an apparent reference to Trump’s criticism of the WHO. Trump on Tuesday criticized the WHO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and threatened to freeze US funding for it.

Again on Wednesday, Trump while addressing the White House daily briefing claimed that the WHO has gotten the pandemic “wrong”. The WHO must “get its priorities right”, he said, adding that the US is going to do “a study, investigation” to determine if it will continue to fund the agency, the BBC reported. “Everybody has to be treated properly,” Trump said. “And it doesn’t seem that way”, as he repeated his assertion that China is unfairly favoured by the global body.

Also answering questions on Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the administration was “re-evaluating our funding with respect to the World Health Organization”. “Organisations have to work. They have to deliver the outcomes for which they were intended,” Pompeo said.

Also read: Palestine PM Mohammed Ishtaye warns Israel against annexation policy

Also watch: Coronavirus Preventive Measures: Dr. Navanil Barua in exclusive interview with The Sentinel Digital