US bars Palestinian leader Abbas from attending UN

The United States will not allow Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to travel to New York next month for a United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several U.S. allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state. A State Department official said Abbas and about 80 other Palestinians would be affected by the decision to deny and revoke visas from members of the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

Abbas had planned to attend the annual high-level U.N. General Assembly in Manhattan. He was also set to attend a summit there, where Britain, France, Australia and Canada have pledged to formally recognize a Palestinian state. Abbas’ office said it was astonished by the visa decision and said it violated the U.N. “headquarters agreement.”Under a 1947 U.N. “headquarters agreement,” the U.S. is generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the U.N. in New York. Washington, however, has said it can deny visas for security, extremism and foreign policy reasons.

Several European foreign ministers at a European Union meeting in Copenhagen on Saturday criticised the U.S. decision. A UN General Assembly “cannot be subject to any restrictions on access,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said the U.S. move was “unacceptable.” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris said the EU should protest the decision “in the strongest possible terms.”

The State Department justified its decision by reiterating longstanding U.S. and Israeli allegations that the PA and PLO had failed to repudiate extremism while pushing for “unilateral recognition” of a Palestinian state. Palestinian officials reject such allegations and say decades of U.S.-mediated talks have failed to end Israeli occupation and secure an independent state of Palestine.

“(It) is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” the U.S. department said. The State Department said the Palestinian Authority’s mission to the U.N., comprising officials who are permanently based there, would not be included in the restrictions. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the U.N. would discuss the visa issue with the State Department.

In 1988, the U.S. refused to issue a visa to PLO leader Yasser Arafat. The U.N. General Assembly held a meeting that year in Geneva instead of New York so he could address it. The State Department said it demands that the PA and PLO “consistently repudiate terrorism,” including the deadly October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war. In June, Abbas wrote a letter to France’s president in which he condemned the Hamas attack and called on hostages taken by the militant group to be released. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar welcomed the State Department’s decision. Israel and the U.S. are upset with several Western allies who have pledged to recognise a Palestinian state at the U.N. next month. Those pledges reflect frustration with Israel’s assault in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of people and set off a starvation crisis. It also reflects anger with Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, viewed as the heartland of a potential Palestinian state.

At least 147 of the 193 U.N. member states already recognize a Palestinian state. The Palestinians have observer status at the U.N., the same as the Holy City Vatican. The Palestinians have long sought a state in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The U.S. says a Palestinian state can only be established through direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.