Palestinian prez can speak in UNGA: India votes in favour; UN passes motion letting Mahmoud Abbas address virtually

NEW DELHI: India on Friday voted in favour of a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution permitting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to deliver a virtual address next week after the United States cancelled his visa after the Trump administration cancelled his visa.

The UN General Assembly concluded its session with a positive signal for the Palestinian President as it received overwhelming majority, with 145 countries supporting it, while five nations, including Israel and the US, opposed, and six abstained from the vote. The other countries opposing were Palau, Paraguay and Nauru, ANI reported.

Earlier, the US blocked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from attending the UN General Assembly session in New York next month after he and 80 other Palestinian officials had their visas revoked, the State Department has said.


US Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed them for undermining peace efforts and for seeking "the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state".

The ban comes as France leads international efforts to recognise a state of Palestine at the session—a move Donald Trump's administration has opposed. The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, had earlier said that, as head of its delegation, Abbas would be attending the meeting of heads of state and government.

But a State Department official later said Abbas and about 80 other Palestinians would be affected by the decision to deny and revoke visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Rubio said Palestinian representatives at the UN mission in New York could attend the meetings in accordance with the UN Headquarters Agreement—the document that regulates issues regarding the operations of the UN in the US.
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