Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour pats his coronary heart throughout the Kuwait crown prince’s deal with on the Excessive-Stage Safety Council assembly on Palestinians and Israel throughout the eightieth session of the United Nations Basic Meeting, Sept. 23, 2025.
Angelina Katsanis/AP
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Angelina Katsanis/AP
TEL AVIV, Israel — The U.S. is threatening to revoke the visas of the Palestinian delegation to the United Nations except the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. withdraws his run for vp of the Basic Meeting.
A U.S. State Division cable issued Tuesday and obtained by NPR instructs U.S. diplomats in Jerusalem to stress Palestinian officers this week to withdraw their bid for one of many 21 vp roles on the U.N., or face potential penalties together with visa revocation.
The Could 19 U.S. cable, marked delicate however unclassified, says Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour “has a history of accusing Israel of genocide,” and that his bid “fuels tension” and undermines President Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.
“A bully pulpit for Mansour would not improve the lives of Palestinians and would significantly damage U.S. relations with the PA [Palestinian Authority]. Congress will take it extremely seriously,” the cable says.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ workplace declined remark.
“It would be unfortunate,” the U.S. cable says in a menace to revoke visas
Forward of final yr’s U.N. Basic Meeting in New York, the Trump administration made the uncommon transfer of denying U.S. visas to high Palestinian officers, together with President Abbas. However the U.S. didn’t revoke visas for the Palestinian delegation to the U.N.
“In September 2025, the Department made the decision to waive visa sanctions and other inadmissibilities for Palestinian officials assigned to the PLO’s UN Observer Mission in New York. It would be unfortunate to have to revisit any available options,” the Could 19 cable says.
A former U.S. diplomat calls visa revocation “counterproductive”
For many years, the U.S. below each Democratic and Republican administrations has opposed Palestinian makes an attempt to achieve full membership on the U.N. and worldwide our bodies, arguing they had been unilateral strikes that undermined peace efforts with Israel.
However the U.S. menace to revoke Palestinian diplomats’ visas on the U.N. is unprecedented.
Hady Amr, who served as a senior State Division official on Palestinian affairs below the Obama and Biden administrations, criticized the choice to threaten visa restrictions.
“Short of extreme situations like Russian espionage or election interference, using visa restrictions as you are reporting is extremely rare,” Amr instructed NPR. “Generally, it’s counterproductive because you need diplomats to work out problems between countries and by expelling diplomats, you’re undermining not only their ability to solve problems, but the abilities of the United States as well.”
The State Division didn’t instantly reply to an NPR request for remark.
The Palestinian ambassador already withdrew his presidency bid
In February, Palestinian Ambassador Mansour withdrew a bid for president of the U.N. Basic Meeting. The U.S. had lobbied him to drop the bid, in keeping with the U.S. cable.
Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. celebrated Mansour’s choice to drop the bid.
“From the outset, the very submission of the candidacy was yet another attempt to turn the UN General Assembly into a political circus against Israel and to bolster the status of the Palestinian delegation through the back door,” Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon mentioned in a web based assertion. “Instead, the Palestinian delegation should start focusing on stopping incitement of terrorism and on actually reforming the Palestinian Authority.”
Elections for the vp roles are on June 2. U.S. officers have been repeatedly interesting to the Palestinian delegation to not run in that race.
The Palestinian ambassador is on a listing of nations in Asia and the Pacific working within the race, together with Afghanistan, Iraq and Mongolia, in keeping with La Neice Collins, spokesperson of the workplace of the president of the U.N. Basic Meeting.
The U.S. cable says the subsequent Basic Meeting president may ask a Palestinian vp to preside over high-profile U.N. classes.
The cable referred to as {that a} “worst-case scenario.”
NPR’s Michele Kelemen contributed to this report from Washington.
