Despite visa bans, PA not pushing to have UNGA moved from New York

While the Palestinian Authority is engaging in an international diplomatic blitz aimed at convincing the Trump administration to reverse its decision to bar the leadership in Ramallah from attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month, they are not pushing for the gathering to be moved outside the US if Washington doesn’t budge, a Palestinian official says.

Ramallah is hoping Saudi Arabia and other allied countries will succeed in convincing the US to reverse its visa ban, since in addition to hoping to speak during the UNGA’s high-level week, PA President Mahmoud Abbas was planning to address a conference being organized by France and Saudi Arabia on September that is aimed at promoting a two-state solution and will see several major Western countries announcing their respective recognitions of a Palestinian state.

The Palestinian official says that if the effort falls through, Ramallah’s contingency plan is for Abbas to address the two-state solution conference virtually — as was first reported in The New York Times.

In 1988, world leaders decided to move the General Assembly session to Geneva after the US barred the entry of then-PLO chairman Yasser Arafat.