NEW YORK: The Trump administration plans to bar Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from traveling to New York to address the UN General Assembly next month for the second consecutive year, Israeli media reported.
The reported decision follows Washington’s unprecedented move last year to deny visas to the Palestinian leader and other officials ahead of the UN’s annual high-level gathering.
Abbas is scheduled to address the 81st session of the General Assembly on Sept. 24.
He raised his concerns over the plan with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his visit to Ankara last week and asked the Turkish president to appeal to US President Donald Trump on his behalf, according to the Times of Israel.
Erdogan subsequently spoke with Trump by telephone on Tuesday, but a US official told The Times of Israel a day later that Washington still intended to prevent Abbas from attending, indicating that the Turkish intervention had failed to change the administration’s position.
