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The United States said on Friday it would not allow Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to travel to New York next month for a United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognise Palestine as a state.
A State Department official said Abbas and about 80 other Palestinians would be affected by the decision to deny and revoke visas from members of the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organisation and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, according to Reuters.
Abbas had planned to attend the annual high-level UN General Assembly in Manhattan. He was also set to attend a summit there, where Britain, France, Australia and Canada have pledged to formally recognise a Palestinian state.
Abbas' office said it was astonished by the visa decision and said it violated the UN "headquarters agreement."
Under a 1947 UN "headquarters agreement," the US is generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the UN in New York. Washington, however, has said it can deny visas for security, extremism and foreign policy reasons.
Several European foreign ministers arriving at a European Union meeting in Copenhagen on Saturday criticised the US decision.
A UN General Assembly "cannot be subject to any restrictions on access," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said the US move was "unacceptable." Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris said the EU should protest the decision "in the strongest possible terms."
The State Department justified its decision by reiterating longstanding US and Israeli allegations that the PA and PLO had failed to repudiate extremism while pushing for "unilateral recognition" of a Palestinian state.
Palestinian officials reject such allegations and say decades of US-mediated talks have failed to end Israeli occupation and secure an independent state of Palestine.
"(It) is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace," the department said.
The State Department said the Palestinian Authority's mission to the UN, comprising officials who are permanently based there, would not be included in the restrictions.