Trump administration blocks Palestinian president from attending U.N. meeting in New York

Members of Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian government will be unable to travel to the United Nations General Assembly after Marco Rubio revoked their visas.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is barring Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from attending the meeting of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York next month where several countries including France, Canada and the U.K. are expected to formally recognize a Palestinian state.

Abbas, along with approximately 80 other officials from his Palestinian Authority (PA), had their U.S. visas revoked or denied ahead of the meeting according to a State Department official, who accused them of undermining the prospects for peace in Gaza where Israel escalated its assault on Friday.

Both the PA and and the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) “must repudiate terrorism,” before “they can be taken seriously as partners for peace,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Saturday, adding that they should abandon “the pursuit of unilateral recognition of statehood.” The Trump administration “does not reward terrorism,” he said.

As the host country for the United Nations, the U.S. is required under a 1947 “headquarters agreement,” to grant foreign diplomats access to the U.N. but exceptions have been made by past administrations for both security and policy reasons.

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.