Palestinian Leader Calls for U.N. Peace Conference

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Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas appealed Friday to the United Nations for an international conference on the Middle East in 2021, hoping for a new start after US elections and the milestone of Gulf Arabs' recognition of Israel.

In an address to the General Assembly, Abbas asked Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to convene the meeting on the Palestinian issue early next year and bring in "all relevant parties. The conference should have full authority to launch a genuine peace process based on international law. It should aim to end the occupation and grant the Palestinian people their freedom and independence in their own state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and settle final-status issues, notably the refugee question.

He said, It is delusional to think that the Palestinian people could be sidelined. You should all know that there can be no peace, no security, no stability or coexistence in our region without an end to the occupation and without a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian question

Abbas made his appeal amid concerns among Palestinians of dwindling support in the Arab world for their decades long campaign for an independent state. The Palestinian Authority has refused diplomatic efforts by Trump due to his administration's staunch advocacy of Israel.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said the 84-year-old Abbas speech showed more than anything else that his time is up. He understood that the peace agreements we have signed shattered the Palestinian veto over peace agreements with the Arab world and what was revealed to all was Palestinian refusal.