Overview

• Existing visas for Mahmoud Abbas and roughly 80 PA and PLO officials have been canceled, and the United States says no new visas will be issued to them.
• The Palestinian Authority’s UN observer mission is exempt from the restrictions, yet the revocations make an Abbas trip to New York highly unlikely due to U.S. entry requirements.
• The State Department says the measures respond to actions it views as obstructing peace, including ICC and ICJ complaints and pushes for unilateral state recognition, and it demands a clear rejection of terrorism.
• Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar praised the decision and thanked President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while Abbas’s office called it a violation of the UN Headquarters Agreement and international law.
• UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the organization will discuss the issue with U.S. authorities, as several allies including France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia prepare moves to recognize a Palestinian state; a 1988 Arafat visa refusal provides precedent.