Rubio revokes visas for Abbas and dozens of Palestinian officials ahead of UN assembly

# Rubio revokes visas for Abbas and dozens of Palestinian officials ahead of UN assembly

*Event date: 2025-08-29*

Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked the visas of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, in a move that sharpened tensions between Washington and the Palestinian Authority.

According to PBS, a State Department official disclosed that Abbas and other Palestinian Authority representatives were among those affected by new visa restrictions. The U.S. said representatives assigned to the Palestinian mission at the United Nations would still receive exceptions so that the mission could continue its New York-based work.

The administration framed the step as a matter of national security and pressure policy. In a statement quoted by PBS, the State Department said it wanted to hold the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority accountable for not meeting their commitments and for undermining the prospects for peace. It also said the groups had to repudiate terrorism and end incitement in education.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the move as a breach of U.S. commitments as host country for the United Nations. It said the visa revocations violated international law and the U.N. headquarters agreement, and it urged Washington to reverse course.

The timing matters because the annual General Assembly gathering is one of the rare moments when Palestinian leaders can directly address world leaders and lobby foreign governments in person. Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour said Abbas had intended to lead the delegation and address the assembly, as he had done for years.

The episode also intersected with a broader diplomatic push around the war in Gaza and the future of Palestinian statehood. Abbas had also been expected to attend a Sept. 22 meeting co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on a two-state solution, making the visa move more than a simple travel issue.

PBS said the U.N. would seek clarification from the State Department. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the organization hoped the matter could be resolved and that member states and permanent observers should be able to be represented.

The U.S. move followed a wider pattern of visa restrictions and public cancellations by the Trump administration, which has used the immigration system to signal policy positions in the Israel-Palestine conflict. The report said the State Department also suspended a program that had allowed injured Palestinian children from Gaza to travel to the U.S. for medical treatment.

For the Palestinian Authority, the visa revocations were a diplomatic setback. For the White House, they were a signal that attendance at the U.N. would not insulate Palestinian leaders from U.S. leverage. And for the U.N. itself, the dispute raised the familiar question of how much room the host country has to shape access to a forum meant to be global.