U.S. announces PLO office waiver during Obama Passover seder

Around the time that President Barack Obama hosted the first-ever Passover seder at the White House on Thursday, his administration announced that it had signed a waiver allowing the Palestine Liberation Organization to maintain its office in Washington, the Web site Politico.com reported.

The presidential waiver allows for the PLO to operate its mission despite anti-terrorism legislation passed in 1987 restricting the organization's activities.

The waiver has been renewed every six months since President Bill Clinton first authorized it in 1994.

"I hereby determine and certify that it is important to the national security interests of the United States to waive" the restriction, President Obama wrote on Thursday to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.