The European Union has called on the United States to lift its visa restrictions on Palestinian officials seeking to attend the UN General Assembly in New York, after Washington extended the ban for a second consecutive year.
The US State Department said the restrictions were being extended because of what it described as the Palestinian Authority's failure to reform and its efforts to “internationalise” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including pursuing cases against Israel through international courts.
The decision means Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cannot attend the UN General Assembly in person. Instead, the General Assembly voted 152–3, with four abstentions, to allow him to address the gathering by prerecorded video, for the second year in a row. The resolution also allows senior Palestinian officials to participate remotely if they are prevented from travelling to the US.
The EU's diplomatic service said it “regrets” the continuation of the restrictions and called on Washington to reconsider them, pointing to the United States' obligations as host country of the UN and its existing headquarters agreements. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has also expressed concern that the restrictions could affect Palestine's ability to participate fully in UN proceedings.
The dispute is particularly notable because the US is hosting the UN General Assembly while preventing the Palestinian delegation from physically attending it. Meanwhile, Palestine remains a UN non-member observer state, and the restrictions come as international recognition of Palestinian statehood has simultaneously gained momentum among Western countries.
