The United States has denied Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas an entry visa to attend the UN General Assembly in New York next week, Hiru News reported, citing two Palestinian sources who spoke to the BBC.
The State Department said it was extending visa sanctions against Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization officials, without naming Abbas. It is the second consecutive year he has been blocked from addressing the assembly in person, Al Jazeera reported.
The stated grounds
The department cited the Palestinian Authority’s “failure to reform, contrary to their commitments to the United States, and their ongoing activities that undermine the prospects for peace.”
Al Jazeera reported that those activities were identified as pursuing international recognition of Palestinian statehood outside direct negotiations, taking disputes with Israel to international courts, and making payments to people the US and Israel describe as convicted attackers and their families. Hiru News reported the US accusing the PA and PLO of “glorifying terrorism” and of attempting to “internationalize” the conflict.
The sanctions were first imposed in August last year, when 80 Palestinian officials were denied visas for the annual meeting. The PA’s mission to the UN retains a waiver under the UN Headquarters Agreement, so its regular staff can continue to operate.
Abbas had been expected to press for recognition of Palestinian statehood — following recognitions this month by the United Kingdom, France, Canada and other Western governments — and to raise the humanitarian situation in Gaza and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian authorities had not responded when Hiru News filed. UN human rights experts have previously argued the bans breach US obligations to admit people invited to UN headquarters.
The same day, the opposite decision
Hours apart, the State Department approved visas for Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, along with essential staff, Al Jazeera reported separately.
“Consistent with our host country obligations, the core delegation from the Iranian regime will be able to attend UN General Assembly High Level Week,” the department said.
The Iranian delegation is to be scaled down in size, placed under tighter travel restrictions, and barred from purchasing luxury goods. The approval was granted while the United States and Iran have been at war for seven months — a conflict in which Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, carrying roughly 20% of global seaborne energy shipments, has driven oil prices up and fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition continues to escalate in Yemen.
The two decisions rest on the same legal footing. Washington invoked its host country obligations to admit the leadership of a state it is actively fighting, and set them aside for a Palestinian president it accuses of undermining peace. Neither statement addresses the other.
Not reported
Neither outlet says whether the General Assembly will again vote to let Abbas address it by video link, as it did last year, nor whether the Palestinian Authority has asked Washington to reconsider. No date is given for Abbas’s scheduled slot.
