Washington refuses to grant Mahmoud Abbas a visa to attend the UN General Assembly

The United States has, for the second consecutive year, refused to issue a visa to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, preventing him from attending next week’s United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York, according to an informed source on Wednesday.

In this context, a statement from the U.S. Department of State said that “the United States will extend sanctions prohibiting the issuance of visas to members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority officials due to their failure to implement reforms, contrary to their commitments to the United States, and their continued activities that undermine prospects for peace.”

An informed source familiar with the matter confirmed to France-Presse that the Palestinian President is affected by the decision.

The Trump administration took the same action last year, forcing Mahmoud Abbas, who usually attends the UN General Assembly, to deliver his address via video link.

Washington accuses Abbas of “breaching his commitments aimed at achieving peace in the Middle East,” citing “actions that undermine” this process and aim to “internationalize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly through the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.”

The statement also accuses the Palestinian Authority of “seeking to bypass negotiations by pursuing unilateral recognition, continuing to pay allowances to terrorists, and glorifying terrorist acts and terrorists in public statements and school curricula.”

In doing so, the United States defies the position of many countries, including France, which recognized the existence of a Palestinian state at the United Nations last year.

This was supported by 142 UN member states at the conclusion of the conference on the two-state solution, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.

This comes as violence committed by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has increased in recent months.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and violence there has escalated since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.

The international community has expressed concern over this violence, but the United States has remained largely reserved on the issue, limiting itself to stating that the U.S. government opposes any annexation of Palestinian territories.