United Nations, Sep 19 — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres regrets the US denial of visas for Palestinian officials which would prevent Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from participating in person in this year's General Assembly high-level week, said a UN spokesman.
"The secretary-general deeply regrets the announcement by the United States extending sanctions that would deny visas to members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and officials of the Palestinian Authority to participate in meetings of the United Nations," said Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for Guterres.
Guterres urges the host country -- the United States -- to ensure that visas are issued to all delegations in accordance with its obligations under the 1947 UN-US Headquarters Agreement. Guterres will continue to engage with the US authorities to this end, said the spokesman.
The General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution allowing Abbas to participate virtually in this year's General Debate, a day after the US Department of State announced that it would continue to deny visas to Palestinian officials, including Abbas, barring him from attending the high-level week in person for a second consecutive year, Xinhua news agency reported.
Meanwhile, India has voted for a General Assembly resolution to allow Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas to address the high-level meeting next week through a video link after the US refused to give him a visa to come to New York.
The resolution passed overwhelmingly on Wednesday with 152 votes, while only the US, Israel, and Paraguay voted against it, and four others formally abstained.
Washington, however, has given visas to Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to attend the high-level session even though its war with the country is now in its seventh month.
This will be the second time that Abbas speaks by video at the Assembly, which he did last year after a visa refusal.
US Deputy Permanent Representative Tammy Bruce defended the video refusal, accusing Palestine of not giving up on terrorism.
"We will not relent on our insistence that the Palestinian Authority and the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation, which controls the Authority) completely and unequivocally renounce terrorism", she said.
"They have not yet done so", she added.