{"id":185653,"date":"2025-08-29T22:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T22:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/185653\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T22:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T22:02:09","slug":"us-revokes-palestinian-officials-visas-ahead-of-un-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/185653\/","title":{"rendered":"US revokes Palestinian officials’ visas ahead of UN meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> has revoked the visas of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials ahead of next month\u2019s annual high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, where the Palestinians previously have been represented.<\/p>\n

A State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss visa issues that are normally confidential, disclosed Friday that Abbas and other officials from the Palestinian Authority were among those affected.<\/p>\n

The move is the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration has taken to target Palestinians with visa restrictions and comes as the Israeli military declared Gaza\u2019s largest city a combat zone<\/a>. The State Department also suspended a program that had allowed injured Palestinian children from Gaza to come to the U.S.<\/a> for medical treatment after a social media outcry by some conservatives. <\/p>\n

The department said in a statement earlier that Rubio also ordered some new visa applications from Palestinian officials, including those tied to the Palestine Liberation Organization, be denied.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n

It said that to be considered partners for peace the groups \u201cmust consistently repudiate terrorism, and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by U.S. law and as promised by the PLO.\u201d<\/p>\n

The State Department didn\u2019t specify how many visas had been revoked or how many applications had been denied or give details beyond its statement. <\/p>\n

The Palestinian Authority denounced the visa withdrawals as a violation of U.S. commitments as the host country of the United Nations and urged the State Department to reverse its decision.<\/p>\n

It said in a statement that the Palestinian presidency \u201cexpressed its deep regret and astonishment\u201d at the visa decision, which \u201ccontravenes international law and the Headquarters Agreement, especially since the State of Palestine is an observer member of the United Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the world body would be seeking clarification from the State Department. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously hope that this will be resolved,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is important that all member states, permanent observers be able to be represented.\u201d<\/p>\n

The State Department said representatives assigned to the Palestinian Authority mission at the United Nations would be granted waivers under the U.S. host country agreement with the U.N. so they can continue their New York-based operations. <\/p>\n

The Palestinian ambassador to the U.N., Riyad Mansour, told reporters Friday that Abbas planned to lead the delegation to the U.N. meetings and was expected to address the General Assembly \u2014 as he has done for many years. <\/p>\n

He also was expected to attend a high-level meeting co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on Sept. 22 about a two-state solution<\/a>, which calls for Israel living side-by-side with an independent Palestine.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked the visas of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":185654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3881,84,69,57,99,59767,410,50,9598,80,75905,75908,5343,4529,1206,36679,93,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-185653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-district-of-columbia","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-mahmoud-abbas","14":"tag-marco-rubio","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-palestinian-territories-government","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-riyad-mansour","19":"tag-stephane-dujarric","20":"tag-terrorism","21":"tag-u-s-department-of-state","22":"tag-united-nations","23":"tag-united-nations-general-assembly","24":"tag-washington-news","25":"tag-world","26":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115114314569393680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}