Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas will deliver a virtual speech to the United Nations on Thursday, as the United States, despite its dissent towards him, contemplates measures to prevent Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
The 89-year-old president of the Palestinian Authority will address the UN General Assembly three days following a special conference organized by France, during which several Western governments acknowledged the state of Palestine.
The administration of US President Donald Trump firmly opposed statehood and, in an unprecedented move, prohibited Abbas and his closest advisors from flying to New York for the annual assembly of global leaders.
The General Assembly decisively approved Abbas’s request to deliver a video message to the assembly.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. At the same time, far-right cabinet members have threatened to annex the West Bank to eliminate any possibility of genuine independence.
French President Emmanuel Macron, despite having differences with Trump over statehood, stated on Wednesday that the US leader concurred with him in rejecting annexation.
“President Trump informed me yesterday that the Europeans and Americans share the same stance,” Macron stated in an interview with France 24 and Radio France Internationale.
Steve Witkoff, a golfing associate of Trump who has become a global negotiator, stated that Trump proposed a 21-point plan for resolving the conflict in a separate meeting with leaders from Arab and Islamic nations.
“I believe it addresses the concerns of Israel and all neighboring countries in the region,” he stated at the Concordia summit at the UN General Assembly.
“We are optimistic, and I would assert even assured, that in the forthcoming days we will be able to announce a significant breakthrough.”
An official from the White House informed AFP that Trump seeks to resolve the problem “swiftly” and that international partners from the meeting “expressed optimism about collaborating with Special Envoy Witkoff to evaluate the President’s proposal.”
Division within the Palestinian Authority
Macron stated that the US proposal includes fundamental components of a French plan, such as the disarmament of Hamas and the deployment of an international stability force.
A French policy document reviewed by AFP advocates for the incremental transfer of security authority in Gaza to a restructured Palestinian Authority following the establishment of a truce.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who met with Trump, stated that the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation is prepared to deploy a minimum of 20,000 troops.
The Palestinian Authority, led by Abbas, exercises limited authority over certain areas of the West Bank, as stipulated by the Oslo peace accords initiated in 1993.
Fatah, led by Abbas, opposes Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, despite Netanyahu’s administration attempting to merge the two entities.
In his message on Monday, Abbas denounced the extensive attacks by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, to which Israel has retaliated with an unyielding military operation.
He also urged Hamas to relinquish its arms to the Palestinian Authority.
France and other European countries, although not aligning with Israeli and US initiatives to delegitimize the Palestinian Authority, have asserted that significant reforms are necessary.
Netanyahu is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on Friday.
