Argentina Follows US, Quits World Health Organization

Photo Credit: Chaim Goldberg / Flash 90

Argentinian President Javier Milei at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, February 6, 2024.

The nation of Argentina announced plans on Wednesday to follow the United States in pulling out of the World Health Organization.

President Javier Milei’s decision was based on “deep differences regarding health management especially during the (COVID-19) pandemic,” spokesman Manuel Adorni told reporters, adding Argentina would not “allow an international body to interfere in our sovereignty,” according to a statement from Milei’s office.

Government spokesperson Manuel Adorni said Argentina would not “allow an international body to interfere in our sovereignty,” and said withdrawal from the WHO gave the South American nation “greater flexibility to implement policies adapted to the [local] context” while ensuring “greater availability of resources.”

Milei has long been a strong supporter of the State of Israel, and an avowed fan of US President Donald Trump.

Last month, Trump signed an Executive Order on the first day of his new administration (Jan. 21) instructing his administration to begin the process of withdrawing the US from the international health organization.

A statement from the White House said the withdrawal was being carried out “due to the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.”

The White House also accused the health organization of demanding “unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments.”

The State of Israel has been a member of the World Health Organization since 2011. However, as with other United Nations agencies, the WHO has been far from supportive of the Jewish State.

One month after the Hamas terrorist organization launched its deadly war against the Jewish State, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged the UN Security Council to secure an immediate ceasefire and unfettered humanitarian access in Gaza where “nowhere and no one is safe, and called on Israel to restore electricity, water and fuel supplies to the enclave from which terrorists invaded Israel and slaughtered 1,200 people.

Ghebreyesus made no mention of the rivers of blood that flowed from dozens of Jewish communities along the Gaza border during and after the massacre, and no mention of the massive deadly rocket fire that rained down upon Israeli civilians — Jewish and Arab alike — in southern and central Israel.

Nearly three years earlier, in May 2021, the WHO singled out Israel as a violator of Palestinians’ health rights and passed a resolution on the matter.

Delegations from around 25 countries delivered remarks accusing Israel of violating the health rights of Palestinians and the Druze population in the Golan Heights during the only country-specific discussion held during the organization’s annual assembly.

Similar resolutions targeting the State of Israel have been passed by the UN agency in previous years.