Abbas slams US bias to Israel, Netanyahu targets Iran at UN

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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas made a new appeal for peace, but rejected the US as sole mediator in the Middle East as he addressed the UN General Assembly on Thursday, a day after US President Donald Trump appeared for the first time to support a two-state solution.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking moments after Abbas, meanwhile directed most of his fire at Iran, which he accused of holding a secret atomic warehouse, but also slammed Abbas for supporting terrorists.

Peace talks to resolve the Middle East conflict have been stalled since 2014, but a number of developments in recent months have shaken things up.

The US moved its embassy to Jerusalem earlier this year, and more recently announced it was shutting the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington, DC. It also cut funding to the UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, and halted some 200 million US dollars of bilateral aid to the Palestinians for projects in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and US President Donald Trump (R) shake hands during a bilateral meeting at UN headquarters in New York, September 26, 2018. /VCG Photo

"With all of these decisions, this administration has reneged on all previous US commitments, and even undermined the two-state solution," Abbas told UN members gathered in New York.

He also rejected Washington as sole mediator in the region, insisting it was "too much biased to Israel."

"From this august platform, I renew my call to President Trump to rescind his decisions and decrees... in order to salvage the prospects for peace," Abbas appealed in his nearly 40-minute speech.

He also reiterated his proposal for an international conference to relaunch the peace process, which he already put forward to the UN Security Council in February.

Abbas was speaking a day after Trump made comments seeming to back for the first time the idea of a Palestinian state. Meeting with Netanyahu in New York, the US president said he supported a two-state solution, adding "that's what I think works best, that's my feeling."

People gather to listen to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's speech to the UN General Assembly at Yasser Arafat Square in Ramallah, West Bank, September 27, 2018. /VCG Photo

He later backtracked slightly, telling a news conference: "If the Israelis and the Palestinians want one state, that's OK with me."

"If they want two states, that's OK with me. I'm happy if they're happy," he added.

Trump also said Wednesday he would unveil his new peace plan -- which is being put together by a team including his son-in-law Jared Kushner and has been described as the "deal of the century" -- by the end of the year.

The president's comments about a two-state solution, however, sparked concern among some Israeli right-wing politicians with Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the far-right Jewish Home saying that as long as his party was in government "there will not be a Palestinian state."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a photo of an alleged Iranian secret atomic warehouse as he addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York, September 27, 2018. /VCG Photo

Netanyahu, addressing the UNGA on Thursday shortly after Abbas, dedicated much of his 40-minute speech to Iran's nuclear threat and said relatively little about the Middle East conflict.

He nevertheless attacked the Palestinian leader, arguing: "You proudly pay Palestinian terrorists who murder Jews. In fact, the more they slay, the more you pay." He also slammed the UN for what he called its specialty -- slandering Israel -- adding: "This body should not be applauding the head of a regime that pays terrorists."

However, Netanyahu added that "Israel remains committed" to peace and that this was a goal "we all want and need."

"I look forward to working with President Trump and his peace deal," he went on, thanking Trump and the US for their "unwavering support".

On Iran, the Israeli prime minister -- a vocal opponent of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal -- insisted that a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran was holding nuclear-related material and called on the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the site.

He also accused Israel's arch-foe of waging violence around the region and supporting Hamas in Gaza, and attacked the European Union for what he called its "appeasement" of Tehran.

(With input from agencies)

(Top picture: Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas address the UN General Assembly in New York, September 27, 2018. /VCG Photo)