We can stop meeting the Palestinians attending the United Nations in New York

The United States says it will reject or cancel visas for Palestinian officials who want to travel to New York next month to attend the United Nations General Assembly session.

Foreign Minister Marco Rubio blamed them for undermining peace efforts and looking for “unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.”

The decision is unusual – the United States, as a host country, is expected to facilitate the travel of officials from all countries that wish to visit the United Nations headquarters.

The ban comes at a time when France presents international efforts to recognize the state of Palestine in the GA session. The Donald Trump administration has completely supported Israel in expressing this step.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continuously rejected the idea of ​​a two-state solution-the international formula for a long time To resolve decades -old Israeli conflict. It imagines that an independent Palestinian state be created alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Netanyahu says that recognition of a Palestinian state will be the clothes of “brutal Hamas terrorism”.

The Israeli army launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas -led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, where about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others took hostage.

More than 63,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.

Hamas runs the Gaza Strip for years, with its opponent FIFA, the official in the West Bank.

Both are supposed to rule for the Palestinian Authority (PA) led by President Mahmoud Abbas.

ABBAS is also responsible for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) – the umbrella organization representing the Palestinians in the international international. The Palestine Liberation Organization has had a United Nations observer position since 1974. It could participate in meetings but not vote on decisions.

in Rubio said his announcement on Friday: “Before the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority are considered partners for peace, they must constantly restore terrorism – including the October 7 massacre – and end terrorism in education, as required under American law and as promised by the Palestine Liberation Organization.”

He said that they should also end efforts to overcome negotiations by following legal cases against Israel in international courts.

Rubio said that the Palestinian actors at the United Nations Mission in New York can attend meetings, according to United Nations headquarters agreement The document organized issued by the United Nations operations in the United States.

However, it is unclear, if the United States is moving to deny or cancel visas in line with this document, which determines that the presence of foreign officials in New York will not hinder the United States “regardless of relations” between their governments and the United States.

In his reaction, the office of the President of the Palestinian Authority said that the decision “stands in a clear contradiction with international law and the agreement of the United Nations headquarters, especially since the state of Palestine is a member of the United Nations.”

He urged the United States, unlike this step.

UN spokesman Stefan Dujarrik also said that the United Nations will be discussed with the US State Department and hoped to resolve the case.

“It is important that all member states, permanent observers, are able to represent them, especially I think in this case, as we know, the meeting of the next countries that will be hosted by France and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the beginning of GA.”

Regardless of France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, it also announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the GA meeting next month.

The state of Palestine is currently being recognized by 147 UN member states 193.

But with no recognized borders, Israeli settlers control large parts of the West Bank – Illegal under international law – And calls for doing the same in Gaza, any recognition of a Palestinian state will not change much on the ground.