US imposes visa sanctions on Palestinian Authority officials, PLO members

By Susan Heavey and Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. imposed sanctions on Palestinian Authority officials and members of the Palestine Liberation Organization on Thursday, accusing them of undermining peace efforts with Israel even as other Western powers moved toward recognition of Palestinian statehood.

The State Department said it would deny visas for travel to the U.S. by those it was targeting, although it did not name any specific individuals.

“It is in our national security interests to impose consequences and hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments and undermining the prospects for peace,” the State Department said in a statement.

The State Department said the two Palestinian organizations had “taken actions to internationalize” their conflict with Israel, including through the International Criminal Court, and said both had continued “to support terrorism.”

The PA and PLO serve as representatives for the Palestinian people and have long pushed for recognition of a Palestinian state by international organizations and foreign nations. The two groups had no immediate comment on the U.S. move.

There are signs of a growing diplomatic divide over Palestinian statehood between Washington and three fellow Group of Seven allies.

Late on Wednesday, Canada said it planned to recognize the State of Palestine at a meeting of the United Nations in September, ratcheting up pressure on Israel as starvation spreads in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

France said last week it would back Palestinian statehood and Britain said on Tuesday it would do the same at September’s U.N. General Assembly meeting if the fighting in Gaza had not stopped by then.

U.S. President Donald Trump has insisted that recognition of Palestinian statehood would wrongly reward Hamas, the militant group that is battling Israel in the Gaza Strip. Since returning to office in January, he has been vague about his position on a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel has denounced the moves by France, Britain and Canada.

‘MORAL DISTORTION’

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, in a post on X, thanked the U.S. for its “moral clarity” in sanctioning the Palestinian officials, saying the action “also exposes the moral distortion of certain countries that ran to recognise a virtual Palestinian state while turning a blind eye to its support for terror and incitement.”

State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott declined to say whether Thursday’s U.S. action was linked to or in retaliation for the three countries’ plans to recognize the State of Palestine.

Asked about the timing, he told a regular media briefing that the sanctions resulted from a report to Congress from a twice-a-year review of Palestinian compliance with their commitments.

It was not immediately clear how the U.S. visa ban would affect Palestinian diplomats.

Under the 1947 U.N. “headquarters agreement,” the U.S. is generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the U.N. in New York. But Washington has said it can deny visas for security, terrorism and foreign policy reasons.

Pigott said waivers of the visa sanctions could be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The U.S. sanctions follow an international conference this week at the U.N., hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, that aimed to work towards a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel and the U.S. boycotted the event.

Also on Thursday, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a bid to salvage Gaza truce talks and tackle a humanitarian crisis in the enclave, where a global hunger monitor has warned that famine is unfolding.

The Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters stormed southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel’s offensive has killed more than 60,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health officials, reduced much of the enclave to ruins and displaced nearly the entire population.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Editing by Katharine Jackson, Andrew Heavens, Paul Simao and Nia Williams)