A MOMENT IN THE SUN FOR ABBAS AMID UNENDING GLOOM AT HOME
▶ Spurned by US, Palestinian President has chance to enjoy UN recognition as he assumes bloc chairmanship
After a year that encompassed US cuts to aid funding, estrangement from the Trump administration and poor health, President Mahmoud Abbas will tomorrow arrive at the UN and enjoy a rare moment of positivity for the Palestinian cause.
Palestine will become the first non-member state to take the chairmanship of the Group of 77, an alliance of developing nations at the UN, opening avenues for greater diplomatic engagement and possibly a renewed push for statehood at the global body.
Palestine, granted permanent observer status by the UN General Assembly in 2012, will succeed Egypt at the head of the G77, a body established in 1964 to give its members more clout in the General Assembly.
Founding countries include Arab heavyweights Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iraq, southern and Latin American countries Brazil and Venezuela, and much of Africa and Asia.
Although it has since grown to 134 nations, the G77 name remains, partly because China does not acknowledge itself as a member despite taking part in the group’s deliberations. Mr Abbas will meet UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York today. In a ceremony tomorrow, the Palestinian president will formally take the chairmanship of the G77 for the next 12 months, with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry among the invited guests.
Mr Abbas will hope the G77 can help the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank under an Israeli occupation, to gain much-needed international support at a time when expectations for peace in the conflict are low.
The UN group’s members account for 80 per cent of the world’s population and they frequently take the same position when voting in the General Assembly.
As leader of the G77, Palestine will be able to co-sponsor proposals and amendments while using the forum to make statements and raise matters of concern at the UN.
But as such proposals and measures are non-binding, the chairmanship is more likely to be symbolic at a time when US foreign policy is dominated by countering Iran and a promised but confused military withdrawal from Syria.
Israel has sought to delegitimise the bloc of developing nations since the announcement of that Palestine will assume leadership.
The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said in July last year that the bloc would“become a platform for spreading lies and incitement”.
Robert Danin, former US deputy assistant secretary of state with responsibility for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, said: “More than anything, President Abbas is trying to draw attention to himself and to Palestinian aims, which are largely seen as marginal right now.
“We have just seen the US Secretary of State meet a host of Arab leaders and the Palestinian issue did not regis- ter. It is not at the core of Arab policy.
“This week could allow Mr Abbas, at the UN, to play to an audience that shares his view of the US as being too far aligned with Israel.”
Palestine’s chairmanship was voted for overwhelmingly by members of the General Assembly in October. Israel and the US opposed the move.
Ahead of Mr Abbas’s visit, Israel has petitioned members of the Security Council to shut down any prospect of a renewed Palestinian bid for statehood.
The pre-emptive move is aimed at preventing the US having to use its veto to reject a statehood request.
The administration of president Barack Obama did so during the last such attempt by Mr Abbas in 2014, with the US insisting that only a two-state solution negotiated between both sides should bring about recognition of a Palestinian state.
Matters have since become much worse for the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah.
The Trump administration last year broke with longstanding policy by moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and cut all financial support to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
It has also failed to condemn Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the desired capital of a future Palestinian state. That has deepened the Palestinian belief that any US peace plan will favour Israel.
Mr Abbas’s position has also attracted criticism. He was elected to a four-year term in January 2005 but is now in his 14th year at the helm of the Palestinian Authority.
Now 83, he was admitted to hospital several times last year, adding to perceptions that he is no longer fit to do his job.
But the lack of US engagement – the Trump administration shut the Palestinians’ diplomatic mission in Washington last year – is considered to be the biggest factor in declining hopes for peace.
Releasing the US peace plan at this time would be a mistake that would lead to disillusionment ROBERT DANIN Former US deputy assistant secretary of state
Mr Abbas has said that the administration’s Middle East peace plan is a non-starter and has cut all public contact with Washington over his policies.
Coming elections in Israel are likely to see the plan’s introduction delayed until at least late spring or summer.
“The indications are very inauspicious,” said Mr Danin, now a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Belfer Centre at Harvard.
He said the repeatedly delayed US plan was unlikely to receive any embrace from Israel or the Palestinians.
Far from being the “deal of the century” as US President Donald Trump promised, the plan could even be counter-productive.
“The longer this plan is not released the better,” Mr Danin said. “Releasing it at this time, when neither party is in a position to accept something that would involve significant concessions, would be a mistake that would only add to disillusionment.”
The G77 gives Mr Abbas an opportunity in New York to deliver a rejoinder to Israel and the US.
Last week, he vowed that he would not end his life “a traitor” by succumbing to the policies of Mr Trump and Israel, and this may just be the start of Mr Abbas’s fightback before he departs the international stage.