US threatens to revoke the Palestinian UN ambassador's visa

Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour pats his heart during the Kuwait crown prince's address at the High-Level Security Council meeting on Palestinians and Israel during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 23, 2025. Angelina Katsanis/AP hide caption

TEL AVIV, Israel — The U.S. is threatening to revoke the visas of the Palestinian delegation to the United Nations unless the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. withdraws his run for vice president of the General Assembly.

A U.S. State Department cable issued Tuesday and obtained by NPR instructs U.S. diplomats in Jerusalem to pressure Palestinian officials this week to withdraw their bid for one of the 21 vice president roles at the U.N., or face possible consequences including visa revocation.

The May 19 U.S. cable, marked sensitive but unclassified and first published by the Guardian, says Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour "has a history of accusing Israel of genocide," and that his bid "fuels tension" and undermines President Trump's peace plan for Gaza.

"A bully pulpit for Mansour would not improve the lives of Palestinians and would significantly damage U.S. relations with the PA [Palestinian Authority]. Congress will take it extremely seriously," the cable says.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' office declined comment.

"It would be unfortunate," the U.S. cable says in a threat to revoke visas

Ahead of last year's U.N. General Assembly in New York, the Trump administration made the rare move of denying U.S. visas to top Palestinian officials, including President Abbas. But the U.S. did not revoke visas for the Palestinian delegation to the U.N.

"In September 2025, the Department made the decision to waive visa sanctions and other inadmissibilities for Palestinian officials assigned to the PLO's UN Observer Mission in New York. It would be unfortunate to have to revisit any available options," the May 19 cable says.

A former U.S. diplomat calls visa revocation "counterproductive"

For decades, the U.S. under both Democratic and Republican administrations has opposed Palestinian attempts to gain full membership at the U.N. and international bodies, arguing they were unilateral moves that undermined peace efforts with Israel.

But the U.S. threat to revoke the Palestinian U.N. ambassador's visa is unprecedented.

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Hady Amr, who served as a senior State Department official on Palestinian affairs under the Obama and Biden administrations, criticized the decision to threaten visa restrictions.

"Short of extreme situations like Russian espionage or election interference, using visa restrictions as you are reporting is extremely rare," Amr told NPR. "Generally, it's counterproductive because you need diplomats to work out problems between countries and by expelling diplomats, you're undermining not only their ability to solve problems, but the abilities of the United States as well."

"We take seriously our obligations under the UN Headquarters Agreement," the State Department said in a statement to NPR. "Due to visa record confidentiality, we have no comment on Department actions with respect to specific cases."

A 1947 agreement prohibits the U.S. from blocking U.N. officials from visiting the U.N. in New York, but the U.S. has denied visas to several Iranian and Russian officials in the past, as well as former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, citing national security reasons.

The Palestinian ambassador already withdrew his presidency bid

In February, Palestinian Ambassador Mansour withdrew a bid for president of the U.N. General Assembly. The U.S. had lobbied him to drop the bid, according to the U.S. cable.

Israel's ambassador to the U.N. celebrated Mansour's decision to drop the bid.

"From the outset, the very submission of the candidacy was yet another attempt to turn the UN General Assembly into a political circus against Israel and to bolster the status of the Palestinian delegation through the back door," Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in an online statement . "Instead, the Palestinian delegation should start focusing on stopping incitement of terrorism and on actually reforming the Palestinian Authority."

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Elections for the vice president roles are on June 2. U.S. officials have been repeatedly appealing to the Palestinian delegation not to run in that race.

The Palestinian ambassador is on a list of countries in Asia and the Pacific running in the race, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Mongolia, according to La Neice Collins, spokesperson of the office of the president of the U.N. General Assembly.

The U.S. cable says the next General Assembly president could ask a Palestinian vice president to preside over high-profile U.N. sessions.

The cable called that a "worst-case scenario."

Emotional appeals at the UN

Mansour has commanded attention during U.N. sessions in ways other ambassadors have not, addressing the humanitarian plight of his people with emotional speeches and pleas for peace.

In May 2025, at the height of the war in Gaza, he choked up with tears during a speech , describing the children killed in Israeli airstrikes.

"These are children, children," he said. "The images of mothers embracing their motionless bodies, caressing their hair, talking to them, apologizing to them…It's unbearable," he said as he pounded his fist on the table and cried.

In August 2025 , he said a ceasefire was the only way to save both Israeli hostages and Palestinian lives in Gaza. "It is not our destiny that the option is the continuation of killing and agony and tragedies and wars," he said.

NPR's Michele Kelemen in Washington and Aya Batrawy in Dubai contributed to this report