{"id":108425,"date":"2025-08-30T20:29:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T20:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/108425\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T20:29:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T20:29:27","slug":"u-s-criticized-for-denying-mahmoud-abbas-visa-to-attend-un-as-palestinian-statehood-set-for-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/108425\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. criticized for denying Mahmoud Abbas visa to attend UN as Palestinian statehood set for discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. says\u00a0it won’t allow Mahmoud Abbas entry to the country, where he\u00a0was set\u00a0to attend a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations in New York City, prompting\u00a0a spokesperson for the Palestinian president to call for the decision to be reversed.<\/p>\n

Representatives for Canada and several other countries have said they’re prepared to recognize Palestinian statehood when they attend the UN General Assembly, which is set to open Sept. 9<\/a>, ahead of\u00a0the second anniversary of Hamas’s\u00a0Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war with Israel in Gaza.<\/p>\n

A U.S. State Department official said Abbas and about 80 other\u00a0Palestinians would be affected by the decision to deny and\u00a0revoke visas from members of the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA),\u00a0an administrative body that governs Palestinian territories and deals with such areas as security, health and education.<\/p>\n

The Palestinians have observer status at\u00a0the UN, the same as the Holy See (Vatican).<\/p>\n

Late last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada would join the U.K., France and other allies in recognizing a Palestinian state<\/a> at the next UN assembly. That represents a shift in Canadian foreign policy, which for decades has supported a two-state solution.<\/p>\n

Abbas’s office said it was astonished by the U.S.’s visa decision\u00a0and that it violates\u00a0the UN Headquarters Agreement.<\/p>\n

Under the 1947 agreement, the U.S. is\u00a0generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the\u00a0UN. However, Washington has said it can deny visas\u00a0for security, extremism and foreign policy reasons.<\/p>\n

Foreign ministers criticize U.S. decision<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Abbas, called for Washington to alter the decision.<\/p>\n

“We call on the U.S. administration to reverse this\u00a0decision, which contradicts international law, specifically the\u00a0 Headquarters Agreement between the United Nations and the United\u00a0 States, which prohibits preventing any delegation from access,”\u00a0he told Reuters.<\/p>\n

Several European foreign affairs ministers arriving at a\u00a0European Union meeting in Copenhagen on Saturday criticized the U.S. decision.<\/p>\n

A UN General Assembly “cannot be subject to any\u00a0restrictions on access,” French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-No\u00ebl\u00a0Barrot told reporters. Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris said\u00a0the EU should protest the decision “in the strongest possible terms.”<\/p>\n

Spanish\u00a0Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said in a statement\u00a0that he had spoken with Abbas to express Madrid’s\u00a0support. Sanchez also called the visa decision “unjust.”<\/p>\n

“Palestine has the right to make its voice heard at the\u00a0United Nations and in all international forums,” he said on social media platform X.<\/p>\n

WATCH | What Palestinians\u00a0are saying about Canada’s plans to\u00a0recognize\u00a0statehood:\"\"<\/p>\n

Palestinians react to news that Canada will recognize Palestinian state<\/p>\n

After almost two years of war, Palestinians in Gaza welcome the news that Canada will recognize a Palestinian state in September \u2014 with conditions \u2014 but some say the move comes ‘a little too late.’<\/p>\n

The State Department justified its decision by\u00a0reiterating long-standing U.S. and Israeli allegations that the\u00a0Palestinian Authority\u00a0and PLO had failed to repudiate extremism while pushing for\u00a0“unilateral recognition” of a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n

Palestinian officials reject such allegations, saying that decades of U.S.-mediated talks have failed to end Israeli occupation and secure an independent state of Palestine.<\/p>\n

“[It]\u00a0is in our national security interests to hold the PLO\u00a0and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and\u00a0for undermining the prospects for peace,” the State Department said.<\/p>\n

It said the PA’s\u00a0mission to the UN, involving officials who are permanently\u00a0based there, would not be included in the restrictions.<\/p>\n

UN says it will\u00a0discuss visa issue with U.S.<\/p>\n

UN\u00a0spokesperson St\u00e9phane Dujarric said the organization\u00a0would\u00a0discuss the visa issue with the State Department.<\/p>\n

In 1988, the U.S. refused to issue a visa to then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The UN\u00a0General Assembly held a meeting that\u00a0year in Geneva instead of New York City so he could address it.<\/p>\n

The State Department said it demands that the PA and PLO\u00a0“consistently repudiate terrorism,” including the deadly October\u00a02023 Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.<\/p>\n

In June, Abbas wrote a letter to France’s president in which\u00a0he condemned the Hamas attack and called on hostages taken by\u00a0the militant group to be released.<\/p>\n

Israeli\u00a0Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Saar welcomed the State\u00a0Department’s decision.<\/p>\n

Israel and the U.S. are\u00a0upset with several Western allies that have pledged to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.<\/p>\n

At least 147 of the 193 United Nations member states already recognize\u00a0a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n

The Palestinians have long sought a state in the\u00a0Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The U.S. says a Palestinian state can only be\u00a0established through direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. says\u00a0it won’t allow Mahmoud Abbas entry to the country, where he\u00a0was set\u00a0to attend a gathering of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-108425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}