UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres criticised on Friday Washington’s decision to deny a visa for the second year running to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in order to prevent him from attending the General Assembly session.
On Thursday, the US State Department refused to grant visas to Abbas and other Palestinian officials for the session.
Only members of the Palestinian mission to the UN will be able to attend the meeting, which begins on Tuesday(Sept 22).
‘The Secretary General deeply regrets and is concerned about the impact of this decision on the ability of the State of Palestine to participate fully in the work of the United Nations,’ Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
‘The full participation of all delegations in the work of the organisation is essential to its proper functioning.’ Guterres continues to urge the United States, as the host country, ‘to ensure thatvisas areissued to all delegations in accordance with its obligations’, the spokesman said.The Trump administration also denied visas for the Palestinian delegation last year, forcing Mahmoud Abbas, a regular at the UN General Assembly, to address the body of global leadership by video.
The General Assembly voted 152-3 on Thursday for Abbas to be able to appear virtually once again this year.
The United States and Israel have objected to the Palestinian Authority’s historical payments to families of imprisoned or slain Palestinians.
The PA recently reformed this system, allocating welfare pay-ments to families on a needs basis rather than political affiliation or prisoner status.
The State Department said Washington also opposed Palestinian ‘actions to internationalise the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including through the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (1CJ), seeking to bypass negotiations through seeking unilateral recognition’.
The United States is at odds with the 142 UN member states that recognised a Palestinian state at the United Nations last year.--AFP