The United Nations Secretary-General (UN), António Guterres defended on Friday (29) the presence of the President of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), Mahmoud Abbas, at the General Assembly of the Organization, which will be held in September.
Guterres’ position comes after the United States announce that they will deny and revoke the visas of the Palestinians who planned to participate in the World Diplomacy Forum.
At a press conference, Secretary General spokesman Stéphane Dujaric was asked about the convenience of Abbas to be present at the Assembly-where he was expected to speak on September 22.
“Obviously, we hope that this will be resolved, (therefore) it is important that all Member States and Observative States may be represented,” he said.
The Portuguese diplomat also considered that the presence of Abbas is convenient, since France and Saudi Arabia called, at the Assembly, a specific conference on the solution of two states, one Israeli and one Palestinian.
Dujaric did not consider the matter closed, and anticipated that it will be discussed with the US State Department, an organ that issued the order to revoke the visas, with the only exception of diplomats working on the UN permanent mission.
Guterres also invited two articles from the UN Headquarters Agreement, which define the presence of dignitaries, those who say: “State, federal or local authorities will not impose any impediment to traffic from or to the member state representatives, regardless of the relations existing between those governments and the US government.”
Israel thanks the US
Israel Foreign Minister Gideon Saar thanked the United States authorities on Friday for the decision to deny and revoke the visas of Palestinian diplomats.
“Thanks Secretary Rubio for demanding responsibilities from ‘PLO’ (Organization for Liberation of Palestine) and ANP (Palestinian National Authority) for rewarding terrorism, inciting and trying to use legal war against Israel,” Saar said on a message on the social network X.
The chancellor also thanked US President Donald Trump for his continuous support to the country.
