Israeli Press
Ynet reports Washington will again bar Abbas from the UN podium
Image credit: Mahmoud Abbas — Wikimedia Commons / Palestinian Authority press office · License
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The Trump administration intends to keep the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, out of the United States again this year so that he cannot address the United Nations General Assembly in person, American officials told the Israeli news site Ynet.
It would be the second consecutive year that the visa route to the assembly hall closes for the Palestinian leadership. Abbas delivered last year's address by video link, and Ynet reported that he is likely to do the same when the general debate opens, with his slot set for 24 September.
Ynet said Abbas asked the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to intervene with President Donald Trump on his behalf. Erdogan has spoken with Trump recently and is often described by him as a good friend, but the American officials cited in the report gave no sign the decision would change. Israel's Channel 12 reported separately that Erdogan is working to help the Palestinian delegation reach the assembly.
The other vote in the same report#
The same Ynet piece carried the results of the Security Council's second straw poll for the next United Nations secretary-general, and the movement in it was sharp.
Guyana's candidate rose to first place with eight votes of encouragement against three of discouragement. Costa Rica's Rebeca Grynspan, who had led the first round with ten, fell back to seven encouragements and four discouragements. Ynet wrote that Israel would prefer the Guyanese candidate not be chosen.
The two items sit oddly together and belong together. A Palestinian president may be kept from the building by the host state's visa power, while the choice of the official who will run that building for the next five years is decided in a room of fifteen — where the same host state holds a veto.
