UN General Assembly lets Mahmoud Abbas speak by video after the US again denies him a visa

The United Nations General Assembly voted on 17 September to let Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas address next week's high-level debate by video. The United States had again refused him a visa to enter New York. The resolution passed with 152 votes in favour, three against and four abstentions. The no votes were the United States, Israel and Paraguay. The text also lets Abbas and other senior Palestinian officials join UN meetings by video over the next year if they are kept off American soil.

This is the second year in a row that the Assembly has written a video workaround after Washington blocked the Palestinian delegation. Last year's high-level week already featured Abbas on a screen. He had hoped to reverse the ban this summer and asked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during a visit to Ankara, to raise the matter with President Donald Trump. The request did not move the visa.

The headquarters agreement and the sanctions

Under the 1947 Headquarters Agreement the United States is generally required to let foreign diplomats reach the UN campus in New York. Washington has long argued that it can still refuse visas on security, extremism and foreign policy grounds. In August 2025 it denied or revoked visas for about 80 officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. On Wednesday it said those sanctions had been extended. The State Department accused the PA and the PLO of glorifying terrorism and of trying to internationalize the conflict with Israel.

Deputy US Ambassador Tammy Bruce told the Assembly before the vote that if the Palestinian Authority wants to be treated as a partner it must stop subsidising terror and stop using diplomatic theatre as a substitute for governance. Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said Abbas could not expect to walk into the hall while payments to prisoners and their families continued. He said the responsibility for changing that policy sat with Abbas, and that videos would have to do until then.

A Palestinian official, speaking without attribution, confirmed that Abbas's own visa had been denied. The State of Palestine is recognised by about three quarters of the 193 UN members, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia. Recognition has not changed the host country's grip on the airport.

Who else is coming

In a separate track, the United States said it would allow senior Iranian officials to attend the same high-level week, under tight conditions. That pairing will be visible on the East River next week: an Iranian delegation in the building, and the Palestinian president on a feed. Abbas's speech will be pre-recorded. The resolution does not restore a seat in the hall. It restores a microphone.

The practical consequence is small and large at once. Small, because a video address does not change facts in Gaza, the West Bank or Hormuz. Large, because the Assembly has now twice written around the host state on the same file. If Washington keeps the visa line through 2027, the workaround is already on the books. If it ever wants Abbas in the room, it will have to lift a sanctions list that it has just renewed.