Countries supporting Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas’s initiative to hold an international peace conference have prompted local efforts to organize the meeting as soon as early 2021.
In September, Abbas had called on United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to convene an international conference in early 2021 to launch “a genuine peace process” between Israel and the Palestinians.
The UN Security Council met on Monday and supported Abbas’ proposal and the need to implement the two-state solution. China, Russia, France and Britain expressed support to resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict according to international law and resolutions, amid reservations from the United States and Israel.
Member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee and Fatah Central Committee Azzam al-Ahmad said the Palestinian leadership will launch a campaign addressing the public and international community to underline the need to hold the conference as proposal by Abbas.
“What took place at the Security Council is extremely significant. It was a response to everyone who tried to mislead the Palestinian, Arab and international public that the Palestinian leadership was not offering an alternative to the ‘Deal of the Century,’” said Ahmad.
The Palestinians have vehemently rejected US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, saying it is heavily biased to Israel and violated international resolutions.
The Security Council’s discussion of holding an international peace conference under the umbrella of the UN, with the participation of the permanent members and the Quartet plus, underscores the international community’s commitment to international and UN resolutions, continued Ahmad.
Palestinians want to launch an international conference attended by the Quartet (the UN, European Union, United States and Russia) and other countries to launch a multilateral mechanism to sponsor negotiations with the Israelis, based on Security Council resolution 1515, which states that Palestinian land is the occupied territories according to the 1967 borders.
In August, the Palestinian Authority informed the international Quartet of its intention to return to negotiations according to the 2002 Arab peace.
