New York (QNN)- The Trump administration has announced that it will extend visa restrictions on Palestinian officials, preventing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from travelling to New York to address the UN General Assembly next week for the second consecutive year after calling for accountability over the Israeli occupation and violations against Palestinians, while Israeli leaders continue to receive US support.
“As a consequence of their failure to reform, contrary to their commitments to the United States, and their ongoing activities that undermine the prospects for peace, the United States will extend sanctions that deny visas to Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) members and Palestinian Authority PA officials,” the State Department said in a statement.
The State Department accused the PA of violating US law by pursuing international recognition of Palestinian statehood outside direct negotiations, taking the Israeli occupation to international courts and falsely providing payments to people the US and Israel label as convicted attackers and their families.
It added that the PA mission to the UN would keep a waiver under the UN Headquarters Agreement, which allows its regular staff to continue working even as individual officials are barred from entering the US.
Abbas’s speech this year had been expected to press for international recognition of Palestinian statehood and renewed momentum behind a two-state solution, following a wave of recognitions this month by the United Kingdom, France, Canada and other Western governments, as well as to draw attention to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the rapid expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and settler pogroms across the occupied West Bank.
No Israeli officials face equivalent US travel restrictions, despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Last year’s ban drew criticism from Palestinian officials and UN human rights experts, who said the visa bans breach the US’s obligation to allow individuals invited by the UN to travel to its New York headquarters, and have argued that singling out Palestinian representatives while shielding Israeli leaders undermines Washington’s stated commitment to a negotiated peace.
Sanctions were initially imposed in August last year, when 80 Palestinian officials were denied visas for the annual UN meeting in New York.
Palestinian officials have rejected the long-held accusations of the Trump administration and Israel, adding they have a right to seek accountability against an occupying force under international law.
At the meeting of the General Assembly last year, Abbas instead addressed the gathering of leaders and heads of state via video.
In response to the US decision, the Palestinians are promoting a UN General Assembly resolution that would allow Abbas to address the assembly via a recorded statement and participate remotely in other events during the week. The General Assembly is scheduled to vote on the resolution Thursday.
All 193 members of the assembly are expected to vote on Thursday as to whether he will be allowed to do the same for this year's gathering.
The State of Palestine is currently recognised by around 75% of the UN's 193 member states, including the UK, France, Canada and Australia.
The move is the latest by the Trump administration to restrict visas, and it further signals the close US alliance with Israel, which has faced international isolation over its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza and illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. A fragile, US-brokered ceasefire took hold in October, but Israel has continued to violate it, carrying out strikes and killing hundreds in the Palestinian territory.
It also comes as the Trump administration has launched a campaign to dismantle the ICC, allegedly accusing it of trying to unfairly prosecute US and Israeli leaders and soldiers for war crimes and crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Gaza.
