Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday accused Israel of sabotaging US efforts to broker peace and said Israeli security operations at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem could lead to a religious war.
In an address to the UN General Assembly before a ceremony for the raising of the Palestinian flag at UN headquarters in New York, Abbas said the Palestinian Authority no longer considered itself bound by the accords signed with Israel in the mid-1990s.
Reiterating what the Palestinian Authority has been saying for at least half a decade, Abbas said the agreements would not apply as long as Israel supports settlements of Israelis in the West Bank and refuses to release Palestinian prisoners.
Photo: AFP
“You are all aware that Israel undermined the efforts made by the administration of [US] President Barack Obama in past years, most recently the efforts of Secretary of State John Kerry aimed at reaching a peace agreement through negotiations,” Abbas told the 193-nation assembly.
A senior US administration official said that Abbas reaffirmed his commitment to a two-state solution, a goal shared by the US.
“We will continue to look to the Israeli and Palestinian governments to demonstrate, through policies and actions, a genuine commitment to a two-state solution,” the official said.
Photo: EPA
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that Abbas’ speech was “deceitful and encourages incitement and lawlessness in the Middle East.”
“We expect and call on the [Palestinian] Authority and its leader to act responsibly and accede to the proposal of ... Israel and enter into direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions,” it said, adding that Abbas “does not intend to reach a peace agreement.”
However, Palestinian political analyst Hani al-Masri said that Abbas’ speech was disappointing and showed “undecidedness, confusion and a lack of options.”
“His speech is a repeat of old positions and there was nothing new,” he added. “There were no bombshells, not even any fireworks.”
Obama, whose relations with Netanyahu have been strained, addressed the assembly on Monday, but did not mention Israel or the Palestinians, an unusual omission.
Abbas praised French efforts to revive stalled peace negotiations and called for a national unity government that would unite the fractious Palestinian political scene.
“We are determined to preserve the unity of our land and our people,” Abbas said. “We seek to form a national unity government that functions according to the program of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and we seek to hold presidential and legislative elections.”
Abbas’ Fatah controls the West Bank, while Hamas, branded a terrorist organization by Israel and the US, controls the Gaza Strip.
Israeli-Palestinian strife has risen sharply in recent weeks as Arab states and Palestinians have accused Israeli forces of violations at al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam’s holiest places.
Abbas said Israel’s use of “brutal force” at the mosque could “convert the conflict from a political to [a] religious one, creating an explosive in Jerusalem and in the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Even though Palestine is not a member of the UN, the General Assembly adopted a Palestinian-drafted resolution that permits non-member observer states to fly their flags alongside those of full member states. Palestine and the Vatican are the only non-member observer states.
In 2012, the General Assembly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine. That followed a failed bid by the Palestinians to secure full UN membership.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in