US to refuse visas to Palestinian officials at UN summit on state

The United States said Friday it will deny visas to members of the Palestinian Authority to attend next month's U.N. General Assembly, where France is leading a push to recognize a Palestinian state.

The extraordinary step further aligns President Donald Trump's administration with Israel's government, which adamantly rejects a Palestinian state and has repeatedly sought to lump together the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority with rival Hamas in Gaza.

"Secretary of State Marco Rubio is denying and revoking visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) ahead of the upcoming United Nations General Assembly," the State Department said in a statement.

"The Trump administration has been clear: it 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," it said.

Using a term favored by Trump to deride his legal troubles while out of office, the State Department accused the Palestinians of "lawfare" by turning to the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice to take up grievances with Israel.

The Palestinian Authority must end "attempts to bypass negotiations through international lawfare campaigns" and "efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state," it said.

Abbas hopes to attend

It was not immediately clear if the order applies to all Palestinian officials.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas was supposed to attend the U.N. meeting, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, told reporters.

"We will see exactly what it means and how it applies to any of our delegation, and we will respond accordingly," Mansour said.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the United States "remains open to re-engagement should the PA/PLO demonstrably take concrete steps to return to constructive engagement."  

"The Trump administration does not reward terrorism," Pigott said.

The United States and Israel have accused France and other powers of "rewarding" Hamas through their recognition of a Palestinian state.

French President Emmanuel Macron, exasperated by the relentless, nearly two-year Israeli war on Gaza, has argued that there can be no further delay in pushing forward a peace process.

Macron has called a special summit on Sept. 22, a day before the formal opening of the U.N. General Assembly, where he will make France the most prominent Western nation to recognize the state of Palestine.

Since his announcement, Canada and Australia also said they would recognize a Palestinian state, while the UK said it would do so unless Israel agrees to a cease-fire in Gaza.

Break in precedent

Under an agreement as host of the United Nations in New York, the United States is not supposed to refuse visas for officials heading to the world body.

The State Department insisted it was complying with the agreement by allowing the Palestinian mission to the United Nations.

Activists each year press the United States to deny visas to leaders of countries that they oppose, often over grave human rights violations. Their appeals are nearly always rejected, although the United States in the past severely curtailed the movements of Iranian leaders to several blocks in New York City.

In a historic step in 1988, the General Assembly reconvened in Geneva rather than New York to hear PLO leader Yasser Arafat after the United States refused to allow him in New York.

Trump plans to attend the General Assembly, where he will deliver one of the first speeches in a marathon session of leaders, but his administration has sharply curtailed relations with the United Nations and other international institutions.

Trump has moved to pull out of the World Health Organization and the U.N. climate pact. He has also moved to slap sanctions on judges of the International Criminal Court involved in investigations of Israel or the United States.