UNESCO runs the influential World Heritage Sites program. There are 26 UNESCO World Heritage sites in the United States

The restoration of the historic city’s iconic Al-Nouri Mosque and Al-Hadba Minaret was just one of many programs run by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which is in the spotlight because the United States is leaving it once again.

President Donald Trump has decided to pull the United States out of the "woke" and "divisive" U.N. culture and education agency UNESCO, the White House said on Tuesday, repeating a move he took in his first term that was reversed by Joe Biden.

The country previously left the agency for two brief stints—once from 1984 to 2003 and again from 2017 to 2023. The newly announced decision will take effect by the end of 2026

"This is not what a major country should do," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said of Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from UNESCO.

The State Department cites political concerns, but UNESCO vows to keep its global doors open to all travelers.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan's administration announces that the U.S. is withdrawing from UNESCO, effective December 1984, saying it had become "politicized," financially mismanaged, unduly focused on weapons disarmament during the Cold War and hostile to free markets and a free press.

These areas reflect the region’s most pressing needs and are fully aligned with UNESCO’s Medium-Term Strategy (2022–2029) and the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework’s (UNSDCF) core pillars: People, Prosperity, Planet, Peace, and Partnership.