Iran Press/ Middle East: Abbas urged Guterres to work with the Middle East Quartet of mediators - the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the UN - and the UN 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.
The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem Al Quds as its capital, all territory captured by Israel in 1967. Palestinian leaders rejected a peace proposal unveiled in January by the US President Donald Trump, in which Washington would recognize Jewish settlements in the Palestinian occupied territories as part of Israel.
"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 captured in 1967.
The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday relinquished its right to chair a new round of the Arab League Council in protest of the signing of an agreement to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The UAE and Bahraini foreign ministers signed an agreement on September 15 to normalize relations with Israel in the presence of US President Donald Trump at the White House.
The UAE and Bahrain's attempt to normalize relations with the Zionist Regime has been widely criticized in the Islamic world.
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