PA President Says Ready to Negotiate on Final Status Issues

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (File Photo: Reuters)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (File Photo: Reuters)
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PA President Says Ready to Negotiate on Final Status Issues

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (File Photo: Reuters)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (File Photo: Reuters)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he is ready to negotiate the final status issues within a specified timeframe and based on the principle of the international law and the UN resolutions.

In a message sent to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Abbas called for the launch of an international conference for Middle East peace.

He indicated that holding such a conference would “pave the way to engage in a serious peace process based on international law, UN resolutions and relevant references.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Palestinian UN Mission in New York were assigned to conduct consultations and coordinate closely with the office of the Secretary-General to achieve this goal.

Abbas urged the Sec-Gen to hold urgent consultations in coordination with the Middle East Quartet and the UN Security Council (UNSC) on convening an international conference for Middle East peace with full powers and with the participation of all concerned parties.

The Quartet, comprised of the EU, Russia, the US, and the UN was established in 2002 to facilitate the Middle East Peace Process negotiations.

The conference “has to lead to an end to the Israeli occupation and help the Palestinian people achieve their freedom and independence within the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the 1967 borders, and resolving all final status issues, particularly the refugees' issue, based on the UNGA Resolution 194,” Abbas was quoted by Wafa news agency.

He underscored the importance of launching a peace process to achieve the two-state solution, stressing the need to formulate a multilateral approach to end the conflict through the conference.

The majority of the superpowers called for supporting Palestine's proposal presented during Abbas' speech before the UN General Assembly’s session, according to the President.

The superpowers called on the Sec-Gen to start preparing at the beginning of next year for an international conference for peace in the Middle East based on international law and UN resolutions in order to resume negotiations based on the adopted international terms of reference.

Abbas sent his message to Guterres, after his initiative to launch an international peace conference was supported at the Security Council’s meeting held Monday.

The Security Council's approval presents the support Palestinians need to hold an international conference as an alternative to President Donald Trump's so-called “peace plan.”

Abbas tried to persuade multiple countries to adopt his position and call for an international peace conference.


The Palestinians want to launch an international conference attended by the Quartet and other countries to launch a multilateral mechanism to sponsor negotiations with the Israelis, based on Security Council Resolution 1515, which states that the Palestinian land was occupied in 1967.


In August, the PA informed the Quartet of its intention to return to negotiations with the Arab peace plan as a reference.


In a letter addressed to the Quartet, the PA reiterated “we are ready to have our state with a limited number of weapons and a powerful police force to uphold law and order.”


The PA also indicated that it would accept an international force mandated by the UN to monitor compliance with any eventual peace treaty, hinting at NATO.




UN Refugee Chief Says Airstrikes in Lebanon Have Violated Humanitarian Law

A general view shows damage in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Choueifat, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon, October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
A general view shows damage in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Choueifat, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon, October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
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UN Refugee Chief Says Airstrikes in Lebanon Have Violated Humanitarian Law

A general view shows damage in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Choueifat, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon, October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
A general view shows damage in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Choueifat, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon, October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer

The United Nations' refugee chief Filippo Grandi said on Sunday that airstrikes in Lebanon had violated international humanitarian law by hitting civilian infrastructure and killing civilians, in reference to Israel's bombardment of the country.

"Unfortunately, many instances of violations of international humanitarian law in the way the airstrikes are conducted that have destroyed or damaged civilian infrastructure, have killed civilians, have impacted humanitarian operations," he told media in Beirut, Reuters reported.

Grandi was in Lebanon as it struggles to cope with the displacement of more than 1.2 million people as a result of an expanded Israeli air and ground operation.

Fighting had previously been mostly limited to the Israel-Lebanon border area, in parallel to Israel's war in Gaza against Palestinian group Hamas.

Grandi said all parties to the conflict and those with influence on them should "stop this carnage that is happening both in Gaza and in Lebanon today".

More than 2,000 people have been killed and nearly 10,000 wounded in Lebanon in nearly a year of fighting, most in the past two weeks, the Lebanese health ministry says. Israel says around 50 civilians and soldiers have been killed.

Israel says it targets military capabilities and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians, while Lebanese authorities say civilians have been targeted.

Israel accuses both Hezbollah and Hamas of hiding among civilians, which they deny.

Grandi said the World Health Organization briefed him "about egregious violations of IHL in respect of health facilities in particular that have been impacted in various locations of Lebanon", using an acronym for international humanitarian law.

Attacks on civilian homes may also be violations, though the matter requires further assessment, he said.

The fighting has led some 220,000 people to cross the Lebanese border with Syria, 70% of whom are Syrians and 30% Lebanese, Grandi said, saying these were conservative estimates.

Israel's bombardment of the main border crossing with Syria at Masnaa on Friday was "a huge obstacle", to those flows of people continuing, he said.

Many of the Syrians leaving Lebanon had sought refuge and fled war and a security crackdown after the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

Now was an opportunity for the Syrian government to show that returnees' "safety and ability to go back to their homes or wherever they need to go is respected", Grandi said.