Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has stated he is able to work with world leaders to implement a peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians introduced by France on Monday.
Talking through video on the UN Normal Meeting, Abbas reiterated his rejection of a future governing position for Hamas in Gaza and demanded it disarm.
He additionally referred to as on nations which had not but recognised a Palestinian state to take action, and for the UN to grant it full membership.
Abbas denounced Israel’s army offensive in Gaza, accusing it of committing “probably the most horrific humanitarian tragedies of the twentieth and twenty first Centuries”. However he stated he “rejected” the actions of Hamas in its assault on Israel on 7 October 2023.
That assault, during which about 1,200 folks – largely civilians – have been killed and 251 taken hostage, triggered the warfare in Gaza. No less than 65,502 Palestinians, about half of them ladies and youngsters, have been killed by Israeli army motion in Gaza since then, in response to Gaza’s Hamas-run well being ministry.
Abbas, 89, was barred from travelling to New York to seem in individual when he and 80 different Palestinian officers had their visas revoked by the US state division final month.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed them for undermining peace efforts and for searching for “the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state”.
In his speech, Abbas thanked these nations which had just lately recognised a Palestinian state in a wave of declarations which started with Canada, Australia, the UK and Portugal on Sunday.
France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra, and Denmark adopted.
The US is at present against recognising Palestine, saying such a transfer is a reward for Hamas.
Abbas endorsed the peace plan introduced by French President Emmanuel Macron at Monday’s summit, which was co-chaired by Saudi Arabia.
The plan requires the simultaneous launch of the 48 remaining hostages held by Hamas with an finish to Israeli army operations throughout Gaza.
That will be adopted by a transitional administration – together with Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA) and excluding Hamas – to run Gaza, paving the way in which for a “sovereign, impartial, and demilitarised State of Palestine”.
Neither the US nor Israel have supported the plan.
Abbas although stated he was “learn[y] to work with President Donald Trump, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, France, the United Nations, and all companions to implement the peace plan… paving the way in which towards a simply peace and complete regional co-operation”.
He additionally referred to as for a Palestinian state to imagine “full tasks” for the Gaza Strip following an Israeli withdrawal and join it with the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution. He stated this is able to be carried out with Arab and worldwide assist.
Israel has beforehand rejected any future post-war position for the PA in Gaza.
The Palestinian president additionally stated there can be “nationwide efforts towards reform, together with holding presidential and parliamentary elections inside one 12 months of the warfare’s finish”.
“We would like a democratic, fashionable state dedicated to worldwide regulation, rule of regulation, pluralism, peaceable switch of energy, and the empowerment of girls and youth.”
The final nationwide Palestinian elections have been held in 2006 and have been gained by Hamas.
The group violently ejected Abbas’s Fatah faction – their political rivals – from Gaza the next 12 months, leaving it in sole energy there.
