State Department memo said to recommend that US visa ban be applied to PA’s Abbas

The New York Post says it has obtained an internal US State Department memo recommending that a visa ban policy on Palestinian officials be applied to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The memo was issued ahead of today’s announcement by the State Department that it was following through with a July 31 decision to deny visas to Palestinian officials over purported violations of US law that tracks Ramallah’s adherence to the Oslo Accords and commitments to fighting terror.

However, today’s announcement doesn’t name the individuals to whom the US is denying visas, so it’s not immediately clear whether the memo’s recommendation was heeded.

The memo also cites reports that Abbas was preparing to introduce a “constitutional declaration” declaring Palestinian independence at the General Assembly, though a senior Palestinian official tells The Times of Israel that the idea has already been shelved.

The declaration “reduces US options in ceasefire talks and in the postwar ‘endgame,’” the memo says, according to The Post.

The memo also argues that a French-Saudi conference aimed at promoting a two-state solution at the UN next month would only serve as a “major propaganda victory for Hamas and the content of it is designed to the Palestinian state as the only possible conclusion to the war in Gaza.”