Palestine

The US has denied entry visas for a high-level Palestinian delegation, including President Mahmoud Abbas, to attend the UN General Assembly in New York next week. This is the second year in a row such visas have been denied. The State Department said the officials failed to live up to previous commitments to seek peace with Israel. The Trump administration also accused the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization of glorifying terrorism, failing to carry out reforms, and internationalizing the conflict by pursuing legal action against Israel through international courts. The Palestinian Authority condemned the denial as unjustified and called on the US to reverse it, arguing that pursuing Palestinian rights through the UN and international courts does not undermine peace. Palestinians will still be represented by diplomats at the UN, and President Abbas is expected to address the General Assembly via video link. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed he will attend the UN General Assembly in person, despite an ICC arrest warrant for war crimes in Gaza, which he denies. The US and Israel do not recognize the ICC, and the US has called the warrant outrageous and biased.

This is a cross-channel consensus summary, not an objective account. Consensus can be uniformly wrong, or omit what only one channel covered.