Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry headed to Rome on Wednesday as his country co-chaired a conference in support of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) alongside the foreign ministers of Jordan and Sweden. The meeting, which kicked off on Thursday, will discuss the future of the agency that has been facing an unprecedented financial crisis after the United States froze tens of millions of dollars from its funding share. Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Abu Zeid said that the conference takes place against a backdrop of the large budget deficit in the Agencys 2018 budget, which constitutes a great threat to UNRWA by reducing its ability to provide services to Palestinian refugees. “This necessitates a reevaluation of the status quo and examination of ways to find radical solutions to the current crisis, including innovative funding sources via the international institutions and forging new partnerships with donor countries,” Abu Zeid explained. Abu Zeid noted that Egypt always stresses, in its contacts with all active parties, the importance of not linking financial contributions for humanitarian purposes with demands of a political nature as this involves politicization of humanitarian issues in the first place. He also called for avoiding taking sudden decisions that significantly jeopardize humanitarian action as a whole, especially as the time available for acquiring funds from donors is very tight. He stressed Egypts continued support for the Agencys work as one of the tools in dealing with the refugees case, being a pivotal final-status issue, affirming the need to preserve the work of UNRWA and to maintain the incoming contributions until the cause is definitely settled. This was agreed upon by the international community according to the UNGA Resolution 194, which established the Agency, Abu Zeid noted. It is worth noting that the joint invitation by Egypt for this meeting comes as a continuation of the priority the country attaches to solving the Palestinian refugee case in light of its historical responsibilities towards the Palestinian cause in all its aspects.