United Nations, United STATES, SEPT 25 (AFP/APP/DNA):Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas will address the United Nations virtually on Thursday as the United States, despite its opposition to him, weighs whether to try to stop Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
The veteran 89-year-old Palestinian Authority president will address the UN General Assembly three days after France led a special summit in which a slew of Western nations recognized a state of Palestine.
US President Donald Trump’s administration adamantly rejected statehood and, in a highly unusual step, barred Abbas and his senior aides from traveling to New York for the annual gathering of world leaders.
The General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to let Abbas address the world body with a video message.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed not to allow a Palestinian state and far-right members of his cabinet have threatened to annex the West Bank in a bid to kill any prospect of true independence.
French President Emmanuel Macron, despite his disagreements with Trump on statehood, said Wednesday that the US leader joined him in opposing annexation.
“What President Trump told me yesterday was that the Europeans and Americans have the same position,” Macron said in an interview jointly with France 24 and Radio France Internationale.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s golfing friend turned roving global negotiator, said that Trump in a separate meeting with a group of leaders of Arab and Islamic nations presented a 21-point plan for ending the war.
“I think it addresses Israeli concerns as well as the concerns of all the neighbors in the region,” he told the Concordia summit on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“We’re hopeful, and I might say even confident, that in the coming days we’ll be able to announce some sort of breakthrough.”
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