The Trump administration has enacted a sweeping suspension of approvals of almost all types of visitor visas for Palestinian passport holders, according to American officials.

The new policy goes beyond the restrictions announced by US officials recently on visitor visas for Palestinians from Gaza. Last week, the state department also said it would not issue visas to Palestinian officials to attend the annual UN General Assembly in New York next month.

The more sweeping measures, laid out in an August 18 cable sent by state department headquarters to all US embassies and consulates, would also prevent many Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Palestinian diaspora from entering the US on various types of nonimmigrant visas, according to four US officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.The new measures affect visas for medical treatment, university studies, visits to friends or relatives and business travel, at least temporarily.

It was not clear what prompted the visa curbs, but they follow declarations by a number of US allies that they plan to recognise a Palestinian state in the coming weeks. Some American officials have strongly opposed this push for recognition, which Israel has condemned.

The new restrictions cover anyone holding only a Palestinian passport, which were first issued in the 1990s when Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, or PLO, signed agreements establishing a semiautonomous Palestinian government in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. They do not apply to Palestinians with dual nationalities using other passports or those who have already obtained visas. The ban covers Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority and head of the PLO, and about 80 other Palestinians.

New York Times News Service