Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday called on United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres to convene an international conference early next year to launch "a genuine peace process" between Israel and the Palestinians.
Abbas urged the international community to reject the US peace plan and Guterres to work with the Middle East Quartet of mediators – the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the UN – and the Security Council on a conference "with full authority and with the participation of all concerned parties, early next year, to engage in a genuine peace process."
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The Palestinians have rejected a peace proposal unveiled in January by US President Donald Trump, and have persisted to reject any overture by Washington, accusing Trump of being "grossly biased" in Israel's favor.
"There will be no peace, no security, no stability and no coexistence in our region while this occupation continues and a just, comprehensive solution to the question of Palestine, the core of the conflict, remains denied," Abbas told the 193-member UN General Assembly in a video pre-recorded due to COVID-19.
He said the Palestinians remained committed to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, drawn up by Saudi Arabia, in which Arab nations offered to normalize ties with Israel in return for a statehood deal with the Palestinians and full Israeli withdrawal from territory seized in 1967.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed agreements last week to establish ties with Israel, becoming the first Arab states in a quarter-century to break a longstanding taboo. The Palestinians denounced the move as a "betrayal" of their statehood aspirations.
Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz, in his debut speech to the United Nations on Wednesday, said the Arab Peace Initiative is the basis for a "comprehensive and just solution," but also said he supported US peace efforts. He stopped short of endorsing the recent US-brokered agreements.
Saudi Arabia has quietly acquiesced to the deals but has signaled it is not ready to take similar action.
Abbas also said the Palestinians were "preparing ourselves to hold parliamentary elections, followed by presidential elections" and that all factions and parties would take part.
However he set no date, and there are numerous obstacles. Abbas's Fatah faction is dominant in the West Bank, but its Islamist rival Hamas controls Gaza, making previous announcements about elections fall flat.
He attacked the US led process, saying, "Until when will the Palestinian people remain under Israeli occupation and will the question of millions of Palestine refugees remain without a just solution in accordance with what the United Nations has determined over 70 years ago?
"We will not kneel or surrender and we will not deviate from our fundamental positions, and we shall overcome," he asserted.
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