Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s office has urged the United States to reverse a decision to revoke the Palestinian leader’s visa, just weeks before he was set to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
The Palestinian presidency expressed “astonishment” at Washington’s decision on Friday to rescind the visas for Abbas and 80 other Palestinian officials before next month’s high-level meetings at UN headquarters.
Abbas has addressed the General Assembly for many years and generally leads the Palestinian delegation.
“We call upon the American administration to reverse its decision,” Abbas’s spokesperson spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh told The Associated Press on Saturday, warning that the move “will only increase tension and escalation”.
“We have been in contact since yesterday with Arab and foreign countries, especially those directly concerned with this issue. This effort will continue around the clock,” Abu Rudeineh said.
The spokesperson also urged other countries to put pressure on US President Donald Trump’s administration to reverse its decision, including most notably those that have organised a high-level conference about reviving the two-state solution.
Set for September 22, the conference is being co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia.
‘Ideologically driven’
The Trump administration’s visa curbs come amid growing condemnation of Israel’s devastating war on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and a wave of Israeli settler and military violence in the occupied West Bank.
The deadly attacks have prompted a growing number of countries to announce plans to recognise an independent Palestinian state at 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 Organization (PLO) of “not complying with their commitments” and “undermining the prospects for peace”.
Rubio also accused the PA of taking part in “lawfare campaigns”, including appeals to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to hold Israeli accountable for abuses in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
But Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, a US-based think tank, accused the Trump administration is “clearly violating diplomatic protocol” in its decision to revoke the visas.
As a host state, the US is meant to grant visas to UN member-state representatives and officials to visit the international body’s headquarters in New York City.
“What’s going on here is clearly ideologically driven,” Duss told Al Jazeera.
“There are people inside the Trump administration who are working closely with the right-wing Israeli government and their goal is to simply remove the Palestinian liberation movement from the international agenda,” he said.
“They do not recognise the Palestinian peoples’ right to state, and they’re both trying to prevent that on the ground in Palestine and now they’re trying to remove them from the international agenda in New York.”
European criticism
Meanwhile, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said the bloc is calling on Washington to reconsider its visa denials.
“In the light of the existing agreements between the UN and its host state, we all urge for this decision to be reconsidered,” Kaja Kallas said on Saturday following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Copenhagen.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also said the General Assembly “cannot suffer any restrictions on access”.
“The United Nations headquarters is a place of neutrality, a sanctuary dedicated to peace, where conflicts are resolved,” Barrot said.
Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he spoke with Abbas on Saturday to express his “firm support” after the “unjust” visa revocations.
“Palestine has the right to make its voice heard at the United Nations and in all international forums,” Sanchez wrote in a post on social media.
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