US plans to again bar Abbas from going to NYC for UN address next month — official

For the second year in a row, US President Donald Trump’s administration plans to prevent Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas from traveling to New York next month to speak before the United Nations General Assembly, a US official told The Times of Israel.

The US refused to grant Abbas a visa to enter the US last year, claiming the PA had been taking steps that undermine prospects for peace.

Washington didn’t elaborate on its specific grievances with Ramallah at the time, and the move was seen as part of an effort to undermine a conference that France and Saudi Arabia were hosting ahead of the General Assembly’s high-level week last year that was aimed at promoting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Trump administration opposed the gathering, claiming that it was a reward to Hamas and undermined efforts to end the war in Gaza.

No such conference is scheduled at the UN this year, but the US plans to maintain the precedent regarding Abbas that it set last year, the US official said.

Hoping to reverse the policy, Abbas asked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan if he could speak to Trump about the visa ban, a Palestinian official told The Times of Israel.

Erdogan heeded the request, which Abbas made during his visit to Ankara last week, the Palestinian official said, touting the Turkish leader’s assistance.

Erdogan held a phone call on Tuesday with Trump, who has repeatedly called the Turkish president his “good friend.”

But the US official’s insistence to The Times of Israel on Wednesday that Abbas would still be banned indicated that Erdogan did not manage to convince Trump to overrule the State Department decision.

Asked for comment on the matter, a UN official expressed hope to The Times of Israel that the US will honor its obligations as the body’s host country to allow the travel of delegation heads who intend to address the United Nations.

A State Department spokesperson meanwhile did not deny that the US was planning to bar Abbas from entering the country.

“We take seriously our obligations under the UN Headquarters Agreement. As host country to the UN, we have provided guidance to all UN Member States on recommended timelines for visa applications ahead of the start of the 81st UN General Assembly session,” the State Department spokesperson said.

“As a general matter, we have no comment on Department actions with respect to specific cases due to visa record confidentiality,” the spokesperson continued.

”The Foreign Missions Act authorizes the secretary of state to impose restrictions or conditions on the travel within the United States of foreign mission members,” the spokesperson added.

The US defended the policy last year by noting that it still maintained the visas of the Palestinian UN mission’s members.

Those handful of Palestinian officials have been allowed to remain in New York, even as the Trump administration issued a travel ban on all PA passport holders last December.

In light of the ban, the UN General Assembly had to pass a special resolution allowing Abbas to address the body virtually. A similar decision will have to be adopted this year if the US maintains its ban.

Abbas is currently slated to address the UN General Assembly on Thursday morning, September 24.

The Trump administration has had a largely chilly relationship with the West Bank-based PA, even though it recruited its assistance — just two months after banning Abbas last year — to pass a UN Security Council resolution authorizing the Trump-controlled Board of Peace to oversee the postwar management of Gaza following a ceasefire there.