U.S. President Trump will be among the first leaders kicking off the annual United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on Tuesday... but the US president will be coming in even less popular than he was a year ago, having withdrawn from UN bodies and agreements that have struck blows to international relations and multilateralism.
Our U.N. correspondent Liling Tan looks at the potential fallout ahead of his anticipated address and the state of the U.S.-UN relationship.
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VO: In Arlington, Virginia, Palestinian Mohammed Eid prepares for his internship with the UN Relief and Works Agency known as UNRWA, while pursuing a graduate degree here. For the 28-year-old, this is a far cry from home.
SOT - Mohammed Eid, Palestinian Refugee: "I grew up in Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza strip. My family came from the north and were displaced in 1948 and displaced to the south and that's where they grew up and where I was born.// Everything I have now is because of this aid I have received at this very critical period of my life, otherwise I wouldn't have made it so far."
VO: Mohammed is a recipient of the UNRWA program that has supported generations of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the Middle East…. but the U.S. is ending its funding.
VO: Peter Mulrean is the Director of UNRWA New York.
SOT - Peter Mulrean, Director of UNRWA New York: "You start cutting UNRWA services, in things like education, healthcare and food, it's very hard to see how these people can go on."
VO: At a press conference in early September, questioned about the US cut to UNRWA funding, US Ambassador Nikki Haley defended the US move.
SOT - Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the UN: "We are not cutting aid to the Palestinians, we are cutting aid to UNRWA. And there is a big difference. UNRWA is a concern because UNRWA is not serving Palestinians. UNRWA is a political arm that claims to serve Palestinians."
VO: Here's Peter Mulrean of UNRWA, on the agency's mission.
SOT - Peter Mulrean, Director, UNRWA New York: "UNRWA is first and foremost a humanitarian organization, providing these services to people. But what it also contributes is stability to the region."
VO: The U.S. cut to UNRWA is not the first UN program targeted by Washington, but one in a series of U.S. pullbacks that have raised the question of whether President Trump's "America First" policy comes at the expense of the rest of the world.
VO: Richard Gowan of the United Nations University's Center for Policy Research shares his thoughts on the current state of US-UN relations.
SOT - Richard Gowan, Senior Fellow, Center for Policy Research, United Nations University: "Relations between the Trump administration and the UN are pretty poor. We've seen Trump pulling back from a growing number of multilateral agreements, most notable the Iran Nuclear Deal, and also pulling out of the Human Rights Council. So the U.S. is disconnecting itself from the UN on many significant issues."
VO: Since President Trump took office, the US has also reduced funding to the main UN budget and successfully campaigned to cut UN peacekeeping numbers.
VO: The US has also left the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization known as UNESCO, withdrawn from the Paris Climate Deal and the Global Compact on Migration, and against the wishes of a majority of nations, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
VO: Richard Gowan, with the UN University's Center for Policy Research, said the changes may come with a cost down the road.
SOT - Richard Gowan, Senior Fellow, Center for Policy Research, United Nations University: "I think that the UN is holding together reasonably well and you actually see European powers and countries like China stepping up to fill some of the leadership void that the U.S. is creating. But if the U.S. continues to cut its funding to the UN, if the U.S. undermines the political credibility of the UN on big issues like peace in the Middle East, then the organization will struggle."
VO: The fear is that a retreating U.S. and a struggling UN could cause irreparable damage especially on the ground where its work is needed most… in places already volatile and vulnerable.
SOC: Liling Tan, at the United Nations in New York.