Abbas set to address Security Council to ask for full UN membership
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to address the United Nations Security Council later this month amid growing tensions with the United States.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the general debate of the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 20, 2017. Credit: U.N. Photo/Cia Pak.
Abbas, who is scheduled to speak to the international body on Feb. 20, has said that he will ask the Security Council to grant full U.N. membership to the Palestinians and for an international panel to oversee peace talks with Israel.
“This will be a good thing for members of the Security Council to listen to the president himself. No council members rejected this proposal,” said Kuwait’s U.N. Ambassador Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi, the council’s president during February, Reuters reported.
The Abbas speech will come amid increasing tensions between the United States and the Palestinians in recent weeks. President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold aid to the Palestinian if they do not restart peace negotiations. The U.S. is by far the largest donor to the Palestinians, providing some $5.2 billion since 1994 in bilateral economic assistance and humanitarian aid according to the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem.
Last week, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley blasted Abbas for lacking “the courage and the will to seek peace.”
However, Abbas said that following Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem in early December that the U.S. has taken itself “off the table” as a fair peace mediator.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said that Abbas is “seeking to put an end to any possibility of negotiations with Israel” with his address to the Security Council.
“Abbas is completely misreading today’s reality and harming the prospects for a better future for his people,” Danon said in a statement.
JNS.org
For there to be a two state solution there has to be two states.
Israel is recognized as a state by other nations like Australia who should also recognize Palestine.
There is no reason why the capital of each state cant be co located in the same city but with separate parliaments, judiciary and executive.
Defined borders for the countries are needed as currently borders for both states are disputed.
There we have it; problem solved.
Abbas should be abyss
Grow up.