Palestinian leader Abbas tells UN no role for Hamas in state
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressing the UN General Assembly via video, on Seot 25, after the US denied him a visa to travel to New York.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
- Abbas rejected any role for Hamas in governing and said they must disarm, following Western recognition of Palestine.
- Abbas condemned the Oct 7 attack, rejecting it as unrepresentative of Palestinians, and disavowed antisemitism.
- Abbas implored the UN for full support for a Palestinian state, proposing an interim committee for Gaza, amid annexation threats.
AI generated
UNITED NATIONS, United States - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Sept 25 rejected any future role for Hamas and condemned anti-Semitism, as he appealed for full global support for a state in the face of Israeli annexation threats.
Days after several Western powers led by France recognised a state of Palestine, denying him a visa
With far-right Israeli ministers calling for an annexation of the West Bank to kill prospects of a Palestinian state, Mr Abbas made clear he was different from Hamas, which is based in Gaza and is the rival to his Fatah movement.
“Hamas will not have a role to play in governance. Hamas and other factions will have to hand over their weapons to the Palestinian National Authority,” Mr Abbas said in a speech that received loud applause by delegates watching the video.
He distanced himself from the Hamas attack of Oct 7, 2023
“Despite all that our people have suffered, we reject what Hamas carried out on Oct 7 – actions that targeted Israeli civilians and took them hostage – because these actions do not represent the Palestinian people, nor do they represent their just struggle for freedom and independence,” Mr Abbas said.
“We reject confusing the solidarity with the Palestinian cause and the issue of antisemitism, which is something that we reject based on our values and principles,” he said.
Mr Abbas, nonetheless, called the nearly two-year Israeli assault in Gaza “one of the most horrific chapters of humanitarian tragedy of the 20th and 21st century” – by implication putting it alongside the Holocaust against the Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 65,500 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
Mr Abbas called for an interim committee led by the Palestinian Authority to be put in charge temporarily of Gaza, of which Hamas took control in 2007.
Trump seen opposing annexation
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will address the United Nations on Sept 26, said in a statement before Mr Abbas’ speech that Western recognition “does not obligate Israel in any way” and that “there will be no Palestinian state.”
US President Donald Trump has staunchly backed Mr Netanyahu in rejecting Palestinian statehood and has stood by him as Israel expands attacks across the region including to Qatar and Iran.
But Mr Trump also put forward a 21-point plan to end the Gaza war in a meeting on Sept 23 with Arab and Islamic states.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said that the leaders impressed upon Mr Trump the risks if Israel annexes the West Bank.
“I think the president of the US understands very well the risks and dangers of annexation in the West Bank,” he told reporters at the United Nations.
French President Emmanuel Macron earlier said that Mr Trump was aligned with Europeans against annexation.
Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide of Norway, which helped lead a peace process three decades ago, said it had become clear that Israel did not want progress.
“Israel cannot have an eternal veto against what’s happening with the people and all the territory that they illegally occupy,” he said.
Mr Macron said that the US proposal incorporates core elements of a French plan including disarmament of Hamas and the dispatch of an international stabilisation force.
A French position paper seen by AFP calls for the gradual transfer of security control in Gaza to a reformed Palestinian Authority once a ceasefire is in place.
Mr Abbas’ Palestinian Authority exerts limited control over parts of the West Bank under agreements reached through the Oslo peace accords that started in 1993. AFP
