Revealed On 30 Aug 2025
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s workplace has urged the US to reverse a choice to revoke the Palestinian chief’s visa, simply weeks earlier than he was set to attend the United Nations Normal Meeting (UNGA) in New York.
The Palestinian presidency expressed “astonishment” at Washington’s resolution on Friday to rescind the visas for Abbas and 80 different Palestinian officers earlier than subsequent month’s high-level conferences at UN headquarters.
Abbas has addressed the Normal Meeting for a few years and usually leads the Palestinian delegation.
“We name upon the American administration to reverse its resolution,” Abbas’s spokesperson spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh instructed The Related Press on Saturday, warning that the transfer “will solely improve pressure and escalation”.
“We have now been involved since yesterday with Arab and international nations, particularly these instantly involved with this difficulty. This effort will proceed across the clock,” Abu Rudeineh mentioned.
The spokesperson additionally urged different nations to place strain on US President Donald Trump’s administration to reverse its resolution, together with most notably those who have organised a high-level convention about reviving the two-state answer.
Set for September 22, the convention is being co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia.
‘Ideologically pushed’
The Trump administration’s visa curbs come amid rising condemnation of Israel’s devastating warfare on Palestinians within the Gaza Strip and a wave of Israeli settler and army violence within the occupied West Financial institution.
The lethal assaults have prompted a rising variety of nations to announce plans to recognise an unbiased Palestinian state on the UN in September.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified the revocations on Friday by accusing the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Group (PLO) of “not complying with their commitments” and “undermining the prospects for peace”.
Rubio additionally accused the PA of collaborating in “lawfare campaigns”, together with appeals to the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice and the Worldwide Prison Courtroom to carry Israeli accountable for abuses in Gaza and the occupied West Financial institution.
However Matt Duss, govt vp on the Middle for Worldwide Coverage, a US-based suppose tank, accused the Trump administration is “clearly violating diplomatic protocol” in its resolution to revoke the visas.
As a number state, the US is supposed to grant visas to UN member-state representatives and officers to go to the worldwide physique’s headquarters in New York Metropolis.
“What’s happening right here is clearly ideologically pushed,” Duss instructed Al Jazeera.
“There are individuals contained in the Trump administration who’re working carefully with the right-wing Israeli authorities and their aim is to easily take away the Palestinian liberation motion from the worldwide agenda,” he mentioned.
“They don’t recognise the Palestinian peoples’ proper to state, and so they’re each attempting to forestall that on the bottom in Palestine and now they’re attempting to take away them from the worldwide agenda in New York.”
European criticism
In the meantime, the European Union’s international coverage chief mentioned the bloc is looking on Washington to rethink its visa denials.
“Within the gentle of the present agreements between the UN and its host state, all of us urge for this resolution to be reconsidered,” Kaja Kallas mentioned on Saturday following a gathering of EU international ministers in Copenhagen.
French Overseas Minister Jean-Noel Barrot additionally mentioned the Normal Meeting “can’t undergo any restrictions on entry”.
“The United Nations headquarters is a spot of neutrality, a sanctuary devoted to peace, the place conflicts are resolved,” Barrot mentioned.
In the meantime, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez mentioned he spoke with Abbas on Saturday to precise his “agency help” after the “unjust” visa revocations.
“Palestine has the proper to make its voice heard on the United Nations and in all worldwide boards,” Sanchez wrote in a put up on social media.
