Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas On Friday he went to the United Nations to reject once again the US plan for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, while criticizing recent deals brokered by the United States between Israel and two Gulf states.
In a pre-recorded video message, Abbas complained that “the Palestine Liberation Organization has not granted a mandate to anyone to speak or negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people.” He claimed that the only way to peace is the establishment of an independent Palestine on the basis of the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
“We will not bow or surrender, and we will not deviate from our basic positions, and we will prevail,” Abbas said, speaking behind a plaque reading “The State of Palestine”.
In a move that could be seen as additional isolation from the Trump administration’s peace proposals, Abbas announced his own plan that called for an international peace conference early next year.
Then historic Abbas took Abraham ropes It was signed earlier this month in Washington, DC, between the Israelis, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain – the first peace agreement of its kind between Israel and an Arab country since Jordan and Israel signed the agreement in 1994.
These agreements provide for the normalization of relations on a range of issues, including security, tourism and communications. They have been hailed as a turning point in the region.
At a White House ceremony, President Trump described it as “the dawn of a new Middle East.”
But Abbas warned: “There will be no peace, security, stability, and coexistence in our region with the continuation of this occupation.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said in a statement that Abbas’s speech is no different from previous speeches that continue to incite against the Jewish state.
“What was clearer than ever before is that Abbas is desperate because he knows that the time has come for him to leave,” he said. He is aware that the peace agreements that we signed with the UAE and Bahrain shattered the Palestinian veto on the separate peace agreements between the Arab world and Israel.
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He added, “All that Abbas has shown is the continuation of the Palestinian rejection.”
After Abbas’s speech, the Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash, briefed a group of reporters, telling them that signing the deal with Israel represented polarization in the Arab world, but “we have not lost a single friend. We have not won any enemy.”
As for the Palestinians, Gargash said they expected the Palestinian reaction at first, saying, “There is a kind of gloomy mood now.” But he believed that in the long term the UAE would be able to help the Palestinians “more and more”.
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The foreign minister said that the Palestinians have not helped by marginalizing themselves that “being outside the hall doesn’t really help. You have to be inside the room, you need to fight your corner and you’ll have a lot of friends who will support you,” he said.
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In response to a question from Fox News what would happen if the Israelis decided to proceed with the annexation, he said that he did not see such a scenario where the Israelis would back off, especially given that the United States brokered the deal and this would make it more difficult for the Israelis to back down now.
But he said he did not see the annexation suspension as something that would last forever. He told Fox News, “That is why I think it is necessary for the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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