US visa refusal for Palestinian delegation prompts calls to move UN meeting to Geneva. General assembly session about two-state solution for Palestine and Israel due to start in New York on Tuesday

The UK, France, Australia, Canada and others are expected to recognise a Palestinian state if certain conditions are met. Photograph: Haitham Imad /EPA

The US’s refusal to grant visas to the Palestinian delegation to the UN general assembly has led to calls for a one-day conference on a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel to be moved from the UN’s headquarters in New York to its other main site in Geneva.

Donald Trump’s White House has already refused to grant a visa to the Palestinian Authority (PA) president, Mahmoud Abbas, and 80 other Palestinian officials for the general assembly session, which begins on Tuesday.

There is now speculation that, citing anti-terrorist laws, he will also ban diplomats from Brazil, Iran, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

In 1988 the US debarred the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), Yasser Arafat, from travelling to New York.

But the White House is going further than before by withholding visas from the entire travelling Palestinian delegation to probably the most important diplomatic event for Palestine since the Oslo accords – a one-day event at which the UK, France, Australia, Canada and others are expected to recognise a Palestinian state if certain conditions are met, which has infuriated Israel.

Such a blanket ban has never been attempted in the history of the UN. Per Clausen, a Danish MEP who is a member of the Left group, has called for Europe to propose a temporary transfer to Geneva “both to uphold the Palestinians’ right to be represented and to... READ MORE    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/08/us-visa-refusal-for-palestinian-delegation-prompts-calls-to-move-un-meeting-to-geneva

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