Opinion: May Abbas’s speech in UN work?

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Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, is going to address the Security Council on Feb. 20 to possibly reiterate the need to implement the UNSC resolution calling for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Abbas could also stressed his rejection of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the legitimate capital of Israel, while announcing that the US has disqualified itself as the only sponsor of the peace talks and that its role should be replaced by a multilateral peace mechanism to work through negotiations in the region.

“In case of an international meeting, we ask that the United States be not the only mediator, but just one of the mediators,” Abbas told Russian President Vladimir Putin in their recent meeting in Moscow.

Abbas's speech is part of an ongoing Palestinian efforts at the UN to confront the illegal and unilateral steps of the US on Jerusalem.

The Palestinian leadership's refusal to keep Washington as an only broker for the peace process meant it had entered into a direct showdown with the US administration.

President Mahmoud Abbas of the State of Palestine, and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands during a meeting in Moscow on Feb.12, 2018./VCG Photo

Palestinian people are calling on other nations in the region to stand behind their president in his effort to end the occupation by Israel and establish the independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Unfortunately, the Arabic fronts are not united and the voices against President Trump’s statement are not overwhelmingly strong. Even within Palestine, the Hamas and Fatah parties have always been at odds and getting a unified position within is not an easy task.

Palestine is also urging the United Nations to stop the Israeli settlement expansion. Right now the Israeli government is increasing settlement expansion so that it can make more of the occupied land legalized, and impose it as a non-negotiable fait accompli. Israel recently approved to build 3,000 new settlement units in Gilo in southern Jerusalem while Palestinian benefits erode day by day.

Mourners carry the body of Nimr al-Jamal, who was shot dead September of last year by Israeli forces after carrying out an attack, during his funeral in the West Bank village of Beit Surik near Jerusalem on Feb.17, 2018. / VCG Photo

Trump's announcement to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, as well as moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the city, was a major change to the US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that had already been stalled for three years.

In an angry response, some Palestinians have held violent clashes with Israeli security forces. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said: "Negative trends on the ground have the potential to create an irreversible one-state reality that is incompatible with realizing the legitimate national, historic and democratic aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians."

Slovenian President Pahor in a statement stressed that he “supports the diplomatic recognition of Palestine in circumstances where this recognition would help to regulate bilateral issues between the Palestinians and Israel, and not aggravate them. But at this moment we have not witnessed such circumstances.”

President Donald Trump holds up a proclamation after announcing that the United States will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will eventually move its embassy there, during a statement to the press in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House , Washington on Dec.6, 2017. /VCG Photo

Mr. Mahmoud Abbas also visited Russia recently in a bid to secure Russian President Vladimir Putin’s support. Abbas told Putin that he could no longer accept the role of the United States as a mediator in talks with Israel because of Washington’s behavior.

However, Abbas's Moscow visit can do little in the practical sense. The Russian offer in 2016 to host one-on-one talks on Israel-Palestine issue without preconditions between Mr. Abbas and Mr. Netanyahu never materialized.

The chances of direct talks between the two sides seem close to zero. The US will still be the major mediator in the conflict whether Palestine likes it or not, because Russia can hardly influence Israel as much as America can. The UN or a multilateral mechanism will function better.

(Professor Zhou Rong is associated with the Chongyang Finance Institute of Renmin University of China. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.)