Palestinians drop bid for a senior U.N. role after U.S. pressure

NPR | By Daniel Estrin

Published May 21, 2026 at 2:49 PM EDT

Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. Riyad Mansour, right, attends the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, at UN headquarters

TEL AVIV — Following pressure from the U.S., the Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations is withdrawing his bid for a vice president role at the U.N. General Assembly, and Lebanon's ambassador is taking his place, the U.N. said Thursday.

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, a person familiar with the matter told NPR on Thursday — a potential reference to the end of President Trump's term.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced publicly.

The spokesperson of the President of the U.N. General Assembly, La Neice Collins, confirmed the Palestinian delegation's withdrawal. The U.S. State Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The State Department on Tuesday issued a cable, obtained by NPR, instructing the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem to pressure Palestinian officials to drop the leadership bid or face the potential revocation of their U.N. delegation's U.S. visas.

The U.S. cable, marked sensitive but unclassified and first published by the Guardian, says 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.

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.

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.