Riyad Mansour Creative Commons Public Domain image

The Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour is a candidate to be vice president of the UN General Assembly. But should he be allowed to stand? The Trump administration thinks not. According to reports in the media a State Department cable has threatened to revoke his visa to enter the US unless he withdraws his candidacy.

Mansour has already withdrawn a previous bid to become the president of the General Assembly after the US had lobbied him to drop the bid. But the US is aware that, although the vice-presidential role is less prominent than the presidency, vice-presidents can be deputised to oversee General Assembly sessions.

So what is the justification for this action? According to reports, the cable described Mansour as having “a history of accusing Israel of genocide” and said his candidacy “fuels tension” and undermines Trump’s “peace plan” for Gaza.

But we have already reported that several bodies have also accused Israel of genocide.

For example the US imposed visa restrictions on UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese says Israel committing genocide in Gaza. However on May 20 Reuters reported that according to the ‌U.S. Treasury Department website the US has removed Albanese from its list of sanctioned individuals. The removal comes a week after a federal judge temporarily blocked the sanctions, finding that the Trump administration likely violated her free-speech rights by ​imposing the measures after she accused Israel of genocide ​in Gaza.

So should Mansour be allowed to be vice president of the UN General Assembly?

Middle East Eye reported that in May 2024, the General Assembly approved an unprecedented measure expanding the Palestinian Authority’s participation rights beyond those of a traditional non-member observer state, including the ability to speak on any agenda item and propose amendments to draft resolutions.

NPR reported that the Palestinian U.N. delegation relayed, through an Arab country, that Ambassador Riyad Mansour would refrain from running for a vice president position for the coming two years. This almost certainly meant until the end of Trump’s term in office. NPR also noted that the threat to bar Mansour is considered unprecedented, particularly given the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement, which generally bars the US from blocking UN officials from entering New York.

So as far as UNA Coventry is concerned, Trump has neither the authority nor the right to dictate to the General Assembly who the vice president of the UN General Assembly should be or should not be. It one more example of Trump’s attempt to be a dictator of global affairs, something that no democratically elected president should want to be. But then, is Trump really democratic?