Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday called on the United States to revise its decision to deny visas to Palestinian Authority officials to attend the UN General Assembly this month.
A US official said Saturday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas was among about 80 officials who would be barred from traveling to New York, where France is leading a push to recognize a Palestinian state.
The decision, considered highly unusual, further aligns President Donald Trump’s administration with Israel, which is waging a war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel opposes the creation of a Palestinian state and has sought to conflate the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority with Hamas, which rules Gaza.
Speaking to Turkish reporters on his flight back from China, where he attended a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, Erdoğan said the move was “not in line with the raison d’être” of the United Nations.
“We believe that the decision should be revised as soon as possible,” he said.
© Agence France-Presse