Members of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian government<\/a> will be unable to travel to the United Nations General Assembly next month after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their visas.<\/p>\n The ban comes as several U.S. allies have declared they would recognize a Palestinian state<\/a> at the gathering of world leaders at the U.N. headquarters in New York in response to Israel\u2019s escalating assault in northern Gaza<\/a>, which intensified Friday after the country announced it had begun the \u201cinitial stages\u201d of its operation in the famine-gripped area<\/a>.<\/p>\n Headed by Abbas, who has not faced an election in almost two decades, the Palestinian Authority<\/a> administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It has not governed in Gaza since 2007 when the Palestinian president’s security forces were driven out by the Islamic militant group Hamas. <\/p>\n In June, Abbas wrote a letter to France\u2019s president in which he condemned the Hamas attack and called on hostages taken by the militant group to be released.<\/p>\n In a statement Friday, the State Department said the Trump administration<\/a> was reaffirming its \u201cCommitment to Not Reward Terrorism,\u201d and Rubio was revoking visas from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). <\/p>\n Before they can be considered \u201cpartners for peace,\u201d the statement said that they \u201cmust consistently repudiate terrorism,\u201d including the Hamas-led terror attacks<\/a> on Oct. 7, 2023, which saw 1,200 people killed and around 250 people taken hostage, and \u201cend incitement to terrorism in education.\u201d <\/p>\n It added that the PA must end its efforts \u201cto secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cBoth steps materially contributed to Hamas\u2019s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks,\u201d the statement read, adding that the PA\u2019s permanent U.N. mission in New York would not be affected by the restrictions. <\/p>\n Under a 1947 U.N. \u201cheadquarters agreement,\u201d the U.S. is generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the U.N. in New York. After the U.S. refused to issue a visa to PLO leader Yasser Arafat in 1988, The U.N. General Assembly held a meeting that year in Geneva instead of New York so he could address it.<\/p>\n Washington has said it can deny visas for security, extremism and foreign policy reasons. Israel\u2019s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar welcomed the State Department\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n But Riyad Mansour<\/a>, the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. told reporters Friday that as far as he knew, \u201cthe head of our delegation is President Mahmoud Abbas, and he is coming to represent the state of Palestine and the Palestinian people in that conference.\u201d <\/p>\n On the visa revocations, he added, \u201cWe will see exactly what it means and how it applies to any of our delegation, and we will respond accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n Several European foreign ministers criticized the decision ahead of a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark on Saturday. A U.N. General Assembly \u201ccannot be subject to any restrictions on access,\u201d French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot<\/a> told reporters. <\/p>\n France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia are each expected to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the assembly, a move the Trump administration has opposed. The state of Palestine is currently recognized by 147 of the U.N.\u2019s 193 member states.<\/p>\n The visa revocations came amid mounting global anger over starvation in Gaza after more than 22 months of war which has seen more than 63,000 people killed, according to health officials in the enclave. <\/p>\n
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