The Trump administration has now taken the lead in assisting and fulfilling President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence’s promise to provide immediate financial aid of $55 million through the USAID to oppressed Iraqi Christians and other religious minorities. They are grappling to rebuild, following the emancipation of Iraq’s Nineveh Plains, known as the Plain of Mosul, and is located to the north and east of the city Mosul. Reports by FOX News presented most of the information used in this article.

The Trump administration reported that it has “renegotiated an agreement” with the United Nations (UN) to make certain that defenseless religious minority groups and Christians victimized by ISIS in Iraq will acquire the backing from the UN of which they were formerly deprived.

The administration further declared that it is accommodating proposals by private organizations on the ground in Iraq to take delivery of upfront backing from the US government to rebuild the genealogical homelands of Christians and other religious minorities annihilated by ISIS.

US Agency for International Development (USAID) press release

The USAID sent out a press release in which it stated that it will ensure that $55 million out of the total of $75 million to the UN Development Program Funding Facility for Stabilization in war-torn Iraq will go toward the needs of those groups within Nineveh. The USAID was also allowed to gain more oversight to guarantee that the United Nations funds that are marked for those groups are spent successfully.

The revised agreement guarantees that the United States subsidy will assist the inhabitants of the Ninewa region so that they can begin to live normal lives with a restoration of services such as sewage, electricity, water, health, and educational needs.

The USAID press release went on to say that the $75 million disbursement is the first payment of the $150 million that had been allocated for Funding Facility for Stabilization (FFS) that was revealed by US Amb.

to Iraq, Douglas Silliman, in July of 2017. According to US Agency for International Development, any success with the remaining amount of the pledge will be contingent on UNDP's accomplishment in putting in place additional responsibility, openness, and due-diligence measures for the FFS in regard to Iraq.

Christian leaders in Iraq, as well as human rights advocates, have expressed frequent criticisms about how thousands of victimized and displaced Christian and other religious minorities were not obtaining their fair share from the UN for community reconstruction efforts.

US Vice President Mike Pence, human rights statements

In 2017, US Vice President Mike Pence condemned the United Nations about ignoring Iraqi Christians' plight in the Nineveh Plains where less than two percent of their housing needs were addressed and that far more Yazidis and Christians were still, after all of these years, living in shelters. A human rights expert has little confidence with the UN and their development program after the Trump administrations proclamation. Hudson Institute fellow and former director of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (CIRF), Nina Shea, told the Christian Post on Friday (Jan. 12) that what is shown is that the UNDP has been grossly mishandled, is far from being transparent, and has intentionally disregarded the extermination of Christian and Yazidi minorities in Iraq for the past two years or longer.

"The USAID will need to be vigilant in Iraq if they expect the new agreement to be successful," Shea stated.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has made plans to make determinations about the funding by early spring 2018 and has put aside $35 million for the requests. The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, along with her office, was responsible for the new stipulations with the UN and their development program. A White House official spoke to FOX News and stated that they are self-assured that not only US monies will go straight toward assisting victimized religious minorities. The WH official added that the United Nations appears to be expanding funds for those programs that go straight to the communities, especially in war-torn Iraq. The WH official added that Vice President Pence’s office is elated that Pence’s promises are being accomplished.
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