9. Agency for International Development · Notable

Cut aid to states allied with Iran

Partially done

Printed page 274 9. Agency for International Development

“USAID should consider cutting aid to states allied to Iran, limiting assistance in these countries to the advancement of narrow strategic priorities and support for basic American values, such as aid to persecuted religious minorities.”

What has happened

Jul 1, 2025 Partially done
USAID ceased implementing foreign assistance and its missions in these countries closed with the rest; what survives is administered by the Department of State against the criterion that programs align with administration priorities. Assistance to states allied with Iran was cut as part of a global cut, not because of the alignment the Quote names, and no determination or notice keyed to a country's relationship with Iran was found.
- Secretary Rubio, "Making Foreign Aid Great Again" (Department of State Spanish translation): as of 1 July USAID officially ceases to implement foreign assistance
  Primary Executive branch Jul 1, 2025
Jan 20, 2025 Attempted
Executive Order 14169 paused all United States foreign development assistance for a 90-day review — Iraq, Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza among everywhere else. A global instrument, not the targeted cut the Quote asks for.
- Executive Order 14169 — Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid (90-day pause and review of all United States foreign development assistance)
  Primary Executive branch Jan 20, 2025

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Moved the other way, and worth recording: the Department has since deepened engagement with Lebanon — a United States–Israel–Lebanon Trilateral Framework signed 2026-06-26 (https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/06/the-united-states-israel-and-lebanon-sign-the-trilateral-framework/) and first pilot zones announced 2026-07-20 — which is the opposite of limiting assistance there to narrow strategic priorities. Both pages are on the state.gov sitemap; neither was read in full.
Resolved on review, 2026-10-04: not aid. Presidential Determination No. 2026-25 of September 30, 2026 (FR 2026-20439, 91 FR 63473, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/05/2026-20439/presidential-determination-on-the-revocation-of-presidential-determinations-related-to-lebanon) is a memorandum to the Secretary of Transportation. It finds Presidential Determinations 85-14 (1985), 92-41 (1992), 98-32 (1998) and 2007-22 (2007) “no longer necessary to ensure the security of aircraft operating to or from Lebanon against unlawful seizure” and revokes them. Those determinations are the aviation-security prohibitions on air service to and from Lebanon. They have nothing to do with assistance, so this neither cuts aid to Lebanon nor opens it, and it is not an event here in either direction.
The FY2026 act’s Palestinian provisions (§§7037–7040: no funds to support a Palestinian state absent certification, no funds to the Palestinian Authority absent a presidential certification, no assistance to the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation) are long-standing SFOAA language carried forward, not a new cut, and are not evidence of action in the window.
Aid to persecuted religious minorities, the carve-out the Quote asks be preserved, does continue: the FY26 SFOAA index carries “Assistance for Victims of Religious Persecution, Crimes Against Humanity, and Ethnic Cleansing” and “The Treatment of Religious and Ethnic Minorities in Syria”.

Action: restrict
Object: U.S. aid to states allied with Iran (Iraq, Lebanon, Palestinian territories)
ID: 741