Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he is ready to work with world leaders to implement a peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians announced by France on Monday.
Speaking via video at the UN General Assembly, Abbas reiterated his rejection of a future governing role for Hamas in Gaza and demanded it disarm.
He also called on countries which had not yet recognised a Palestinian state to do so, and for the UN to grant it full membership.
Abbas denounced Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, accusing it of committing “one of the most horrific humanitarian tragedies of the 20th and 21st Centuries”. But he said he “rejected” the actions of Hamas in its attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
That attack, in which about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – were killed and 251 taken hostage, triggered the war in Gaza. At least 65,502 Palestinians, about half of them women and children, have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza since then, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Abbas, 89, was barred from travelling to New York to appear in person when he and 80 other Palestinian officials had their visas revoked by the US state department last month.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed them for undermining peace efforts and for seeking “the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state”.
In his speech, Abbas thanked those countries which had recently recognised a Palestinian state in a wave of declarations which began with Canada, Australia, the UK and Portugal on Sunday.
France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra, and Denmark followed.
The US is currently opposed to recognising Palestine, saying such a move is a reward for Hamas.
Abbas endorsed the peace plan announced by French President Emmanuel Macron at Monday’s summit, which was co-chaired by Saudi Arabia.
The plan calls for the simultaneous release of the 48 remaining hostages held by Hamas with an end to Israeli military operations across Gaza.
That would be followed by a transitional administration – including Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA) and excluding Hamas – to run Gaza, paving the way for a “sovereign, independent, and demilitarised State of Palestine”.
Neither the US nor Israel have supported the plan.
Abbas though said he was “read[y] to work with President Donald Trump, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, France, the United Nations, and all partners to implement the peace plan… paving the way toward a just peace and comprehensive regional co-operation”.
He also called for a Palestinian state to assume “full responsibilities” for the Gaza Strip following an Israeli withdrawal and connect it with the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He said this would be done with Arab and international support.
Israel has previously rejected any future post-war role for the PA in Gaza.
The Palestinian president also said there would be “national efforts toward reform, including holding presidential and parliamentary elections within one year of the war’s end”.
“We want a democratic, modern state committed to international law, rule of law, pluralism, peaceful transfer of power, and the empowerment of women and youth.”
The last national Palestinian elections were held in 2006 and were won by Hamas.
The group violently ejected Abbas’s Fatah faction – their political rivals – from Gaza the following year, leaving it in sole power there.
