After the US refused him a visa, the UN General Assembly voted 145-5 to enable President Mahmoud Abbas to speak to the UNGA via video next week.
After the United States denied Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a visa to visit New York in person, the UN General Assembly decided to let him speak to its annual assembly of global leaders via video connection next week.
The resolution, which passed on Friday with 145 votes in favor, five against, and six abstentions, said that the State of Palestine might submit a prepared message from its president that would be played in the General Assembly Hall.
The action follows weeks after the Palestinian Authority called on Washington to restore Abbas’s visa so he could visit the US to head the Palestinian delegation and give a face-to-face speech at the UNGA.
The US State Department canceled the visas of 80 Palestinian leaders, including Abbas, on the grounds of national security.
After leaders convene on Monday for a conference sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia with the goal of accelerating the process of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, the General Assembly addresses are set to start on Tuesday.
“At the UN General Assembly, Gaza is the most important subject,” James Bays, Diplomatic Editor for Al Jazeera, stated from New York.
“Every leader comes here to deliver their remarks. However, this is the first time that Mahmoud Abbas has had his visa rejected, which is quite rare.
A “snapshot of world opinion on Palestine and Gaza,” according to Bays, the resounding vote in favor of Abbas speaking to the UNGA via video revealed “very few nations that are defending the position of Israel and the US.”
The UN claims that the Trump administration‘s move breaches the Host Country Agreement, which requires the US to allow heads of state and government to visit New York for yearly meetings and diplomatic business. The decision has drawn a lot of criticism.
The US visa restrictions coincide with a surge of Israeli military and settler violence in the occupied West Bank and growing criticism of Israel’s assault on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
A growing number of nations, mostly in Europe, have declared their plans to support Palestinian statehood at the UN in September in reaction to Israel’s catastrophic assaults over the previous almost two years.
Since October 2023, Israel’s attack on Gaza has killed at least 65,141 people and injured 165,925 more, with many more reportedly buried under the debris, according to local health experts.