White House said to have rejected PA request for meeting between Abbas, Biden

The White House rejected a request from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to meet with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last week, Axios and Walla report.

Citing US and Palestinian sources, the reports say the White House told the Palestinians that Biden wouldn’t be holding any bilateral meetings in New York and that his schedule wouldn’t allow for a meeting in Washington.

The rejection contributed to Abbas’s decision not to travel to New York and to send a videotaped speech instead, the reports add, noting that Biden ended up holding three bilateral meetings at the UNGA.