News Analysis: Expected Abbas' UN speech won't change ties with Israel

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is going to make a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday. As media reported, the speech may contain some surprising news, local analysts believe it won't change the current relations with Israel.

Over the past several years, Abbas has been using the UN General Assembly meetings that are held in September every year in New York, to activate the Palestinian cause and make political accomplishments that aim at attracting international support to the peace process with Israel.

During the UN General Assembly meeting in 2011, Abbas applied a bid to the UN Security Council asking for full recognition of a Palestinian state. However, the bid wasn't presented for voting because it didn't gain the needed votes.

In 2012, Abbas renewed his request before the General Assembly, and demanded to promote the Palestinians representations in the UN to a non-member observer state. In November of the same year, 138 states voted in favor of the bid, nine states opposed and 41 states sustained.

After the Palestinians gained this position in the UN, they began to join other international agencies and treaties, mainly the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Several international treaties, including Rome Statute and the 4th Geneva Conventions, were also signed since then.

Last year, Abbas addressed a speech before the UN General Assembly, unveiling that the Palestinians want to apply to the UN Security Council to demand a specific timetable for ending the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories and establishing a Palestinian state. Yet this request wasn't accepted because he failed to gain a consensus in the UN Security Council.

This year, various media reported that Abbas is preparing a surprising speech scheduled on Wednesday before the UN General Assembly. However, Palestinian analysts don't believe the speech would change the current ties with Israel.

Rajab Abu Serreya, a Ramallah-based political analyst, said if there will be a surprise in Abbas speech, "he may declare the non-member observer state of Palestinian as an occupied state, and asks the world to deal with his authority (PNA) that is under the occupation."

"Abbas will count on the UN decision to promote the Palestinians position to be a non-member observer state, exerting more pressure on the international community to guarantee a world-sponsored peace talks with Israel that end the occupation," Abu Serreya told Xinhua.

He clarified that the UN decision had been made three years ago, but nothing on the ground had changed. "The Palestinian attitude to the world to guarantee peaceful struggle against Israel was not enough at all to establish a Palestinian state without having real resistance on the ground," he said.

Hani al-Masri, another political analyst from Ramallah, ruled out that Abbas speech will become an important turning point for the Palestinians at this stage, adding that "what concerns the world, the Arabs and the Palestinians is to keep the situation as it is and stop its deterioration."

"Everyone at the current stage has to work on preventing a comprehensive confrontation if the world stops backing the so-called peace process," said al-Masri, adding that "the coming speech has to give priority to ending the internal Palestinian split and empowering the Palestinian resistance against Israel."

Al-Masri advised Abbas to focus on a clear declaration of rejecting to resume the bilateral talks with Israel under a U.S. sponsorship, the Quartet or the Arabs, adding that "resuming the talks should be based on a clear Security Council resolution that addresses the basic rights and independence of the Palestinians."

Before arriving in New York, Abbas visited both Russia and France, holding consultations related to the future of the peace process in the Middle East. After arriving in the United States, Abbas held intensive meetings with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other Arab and European leaders.

The direct peace talks with Israel stopped in March last year after it went on for nine months under the sponsorship of the United States., without any concrete agreements.

Meanwhile, Nabil Amro, the former Palestinian ambassador to the Arab League, told Xinhua that the General Assembly meetings do not have the same values to the Palestinian cause that it used to have several years ago due to the changes in the international policies.

"The podium of the UN is only devoted to demonstrating the policies and positions of each state member in the organization and not a place for resolving conflicts," said Anmro, adding that "resolving conflicts must be done through talks that take place outside the corridors of the UN."

He said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the only conflict in the world. "Palestinian presence at the UN this year has become a typical presence only with no values or importance." Endit