After down-to-the-wire negotiations, United Nations members have adopted a budget for 2021 that was higher than Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed and was strongly opposed by the Trump administration for including money to commemorate the outcome of a 2001 conference in South Africa that it called anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.
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The $3.231 billion budget was then approved by the UN General Assembly last Thursday by a vote of 167-2 with the United States and Israel voting "no."
The UN's regular operating budget is usually approved by consensus before Christmas, but this year contentious negotiations kept diplomats sparring until New Year's Eve. While many countries that had compromised on a variety of issues thought consensus had been achieved, the United States called for a vote over funding to commemorate the Durban Declaration and Program of Action adopted at the World Conference Against Racism.
