US visa refusal for Palestinian delegation prompts calls to move UN meeting to Geneva | United Nations

The US’s refusal to grant visas to the Palestinian delegation to the UN general assembly has led to calls for a one-day conference on a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel to be moved from the UN’s headquarters in New York to its other main site in Geneva.

Donald Trump’s White House has already refused to grant a visa to the Palestinian Authority (PA) president, Mahmoud Abbas, and 80 other Palestinian officials for the general assembly session, which begins on Tuesday.

There is now speculation that, citing anti-terrorist laws, he will also ban diplomats from Brazil, Iran, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

In 1988 the US debarred the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), Yasser Arafat, from travelling to New York.

But the White House is going further than before by withholding visas from the entire travelling Palestinian delegation to probably the most important diplomatic event for Palestine since the Oslo accords – a one-day event at which the UK, France, Australia, Canada and others are expected to recognise a Palestinian state if certain conditions are met, which has infuriated Israel.

Such a blanket ban has never been attempted in the history of the UN. Per Clausen, a Danish MEP who is a member of the Left group, has called for Europe to propose a temporary transfer to Geneva “both to uphold the Palestinians’ right to be represented and to send a clear signal to Trump”.

In a statement at the end of August, the US state department said: “It is in our national security interests to hold the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian Authority accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace.”

It added that, to be considered partners for peace, both groups “must consistently repudiate terrorism, and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by US law and as promised by the PLO”.

It also called on the PA to end its attempts to bypass negotiations through international “lawfare” campaigns, including appeals to the international criminal court and to the international court of justice, and efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state.

The state department argued: “Both steps materially contributed to Hamas’s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks.”

The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said Abbas had planned to lead the delegation to the UN meetings and was expected to address the general assembly at the high-level general debate, which begins on 23 September.

Abbas was also expected to attend a delayed meeting co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on 22 September about a two-state solution.

A group of states will formally recognise the state of Palestine on that day, and Abbas was due to make a series of commitments about PA’s support for exclusively peaceful means to resolve the conflict with Israel.

Abbas was due to meet the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, in London on Monday evening to discuss the plans for a reformed Palestinian leadership.

Palestine is an observer member of the UN, meaning it can speak at meetings but not vote on resolutions.

Under a 1947 UN agreement, the US is generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the UN in New York. Previously in 2019 the US restricted the areas that the Iranian diplomat Javad Zarif was allowed to visit next to the UN headquarters and the Iranian permanent mission.

Washington has said it can deny visas for security, extremism and foreign policy reasons.

For Brazil, it was not clear if any potential visa restrictions would affect the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva or lower-level members of the country’s delegation to the UN gathering.

Brazil’s president is traditionally the first world leader to speak before the gathered officials on the opening day of the session. The US president is by precedent the second speaker.

Lula has been a target of Trump, who objects to the prosecution of the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally accused of leading an attempted coup.