Palestinian Ambassador Shawesh criticises US for blocking Abbas' visa ahead of UNGA
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Palestinian Ambassador Shawesh criticises US for blocking Abbas' visa ahead of UNGA")
Palestinian Ambassador Shawesh criticises US for blocking Abbas visa ahead of UNGA Photograph: (WION)
The Trump administration has extended visa restrictions on Palestinian Authority and PLO officials, citing alleged failures to reform, payments to prisoners’ families etc
Palestinian Ambassador to India Abdullah M. Abu Shawesh has hit out at Washington and accused it of practising “might create the right” after the United States again denied President Mahmoud Abbas a visa for the UN General Assembly. Abbas would address the Assembly by pre-recorded statement for the second consecutive year. The Trump administration has extended visa restrictions on Palestinian Authority and PLO officials, citing alleged failures to reform, payments to prisoners’ families etc.
Speaking to WION, as world leaders prepare for the high-level week in New York, Abu Shawesh said the United States, as host under the UN Headquarters Agreement, had no legal right to bar a recognised official from the meeting. “This is the era which we are living in, where the might create the right,” he said. On India, the ambassador said relations remained “at the very highest level.” He pointed to a visit about a month ago by a senior Indian diplomat, during which New Delhi announced a hospital in the West Bank with an investment of about $28 million, plus a vocational training centre.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had earlier flagged the hospital and skills project; India has also discussed prosthetic care after the war in Gaza. Ground was broken in August on a 200-bed super-speciality hospital in Jenin, with a trauma centre, alongside medicines and other health assistance. “India has been with us since the very first day,” Abu Shawesh said. Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin visited India earlier this year.
He congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for convening the BRICS summit in New Delhi “in a very tipping and very significant time.” The joint declaration, he said, included Palestine, a two-state solution with East Jerusalem as capital. BRICS text also opposed forced displacement and backed a sovereign Palestinian state on 1967 lines.
Separately, the ambassador criticised commemorations of the 1918 Battle of Haifa as a "false" narrative. Britain itself became the occupying power, and India was then a colony without an independent decision to “liberate” anyone, he argued. His mission had screened a short film on the issue. India has long backed a two-state solution and UN resolutions on Palestine while maintaining strong ties with Israel.
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