UN lets Abbas speak by video after Washington again blocks his visa

The United Nations General Assembly voted 152 to 3, with four abstentions, on Thursday, 17 September, to let Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas address next week’s high-level debate by video. The same resolution covers other senior Palestinian officials for the next year if they cannot travel to New York. The United States had again refused Abbas a visa, the second year in a row.

A Palestinian official, speaking without attribution, confirmed the denial. The State Department on Wednesday extended visa sanctions on members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. The statement accused the two bodies of “glorifying terrorism” and of trying to “internationalize” the conflict by taking cases to international tribunals. It did not name Abbas. Last year the same policy covered Abbas and about 80 other Palestinians. He spoke by video then as well.

The 1947 Headquarters Agreement generally requires the United States, as host, to admit diplomats coming to the UN. Washington says it can still refuse visas on security, extremism and foreign policy grounds. That reading is now a repeated practice rather than a one-off.

Iranian names on a shorter list

The same week, the State Department said a core Iranian delegation may attend. The names include President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi. The group will be smaller than in past years. It will face travel limits inside the United States and limits on buying luxury and other goods. The department presented the permission as compliance with host-country duties during an ongoing war.

The contrast is the story that governments will brief. A country at war with the United States receives a trimmed but physical presence at UNGA. The head of the Palestinian Authority, recognised as a state by about three-quarters of UN members, including Britain, France, Canada and Australia, does not. Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon said Abbas should not expect the issue of payments to prisoners’ families to be ignored. The Palestinian Authority foreign ministry called the visa ban a blow to the climate needed for a two-state track.

What the 152 votes actually do

The resolution does not create a right of entry. It creates a right to appear on the screen. It also sets a one-year standing arrangement so each new visa refusal does not need a fresh plenary fight. Three member states voted no. The public list of those three was not the centre of Thursday’s reporting; the margin was. One hundred and fifty-two governments preferred a video workaround to a vacant Palestinian seat.

High-level week begins next week. Abbas will speak from wherever he is allowed to sit with a camera. Pezeshkian, if he travels, will speak from the hall under movement rules written by the host. The Headquarters Agreement was written for a different era of host-guest relations. Thursday showed how that text is now applied: physical access for one adversary, remote access for another, and a plenary vote to paper over the gap.