Abbas, Netanyahu differ on UN resolutions on Israel

NEW YORK

Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday called on world leaders to enforce UN Security Council resolutions against Israeli occupation.

“Despite the Security Council's adoption of 12 resolutions condemning Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 1967, none of these resolutions has been implemented, encouraging Israel to continue pursuing its plans for the seizure of more Palestinian land in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, with impunity,” Abbas said during an address at the UN General Assembly meeting.

On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his address after Abbas called the resolutions an “obsessive bias” against his country.

“The UN deserved every …. words for the disgrace of General Assembly that last year passed 20 resolutions against the democratic state of Israel,” he said.

He also called the UN Human Rights Council a “joke” for its condemnation of the Israeli government for violating human rights of Palestinians.

Abbas said Israel's “racial discrimination” against the Palestinian people has become a daily reality.

He also said that the world should recognize the state of Palestine, adding that it is not fair to recognize Israel but not Palestine.

Abbas also called on the U.K. to apologize to Palestinians on the centennial anniversary of the 1917 Belfour Declaration -- a controversial document that sacrificed Palestinian land for the establishment of a Jewish state.

He also asked world leaders to declare 2017 “the international year to end the Israeli occupation of our land”.

Iran’s Hassan Rouhani also took on Israel for its occupation of Palestinian lands and the continuation of settlements in the West Bank.

In his address to the General Assembly, Rouhani called on the international community to stop Israel’s policies of hatred and discrimination against Palestinians.

Rouhani also blamed the U.S. for the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East due to its “erroneous” policies following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

He said that the “painful” 9/11 attacks led to a larger disasters resulting in a devastating war in the Middle East and the spread of insecurity across the world.

The Iranian leader added that the post 9/11 wars waged by the U.S. on terror have “sown the seeds of borderless terrorism everywhere on the earth.”

According to Rouhani, security has become a major global problem as a result of great powers’ adopting different methods of intervention “under the pretext of providing a secure environment for their citizens.

“Security in one region in the cost of insecurity of others would not only be impossible but it could also lead to more insecurity everywhere,” he said.

Rouhani applauded the nuclear deal his country and the world powers inked last year but accused pro-Israeli lobbies of pressing the U.S. Congress to block the release of Iranian assets in the U.S. as part of loosening sanctions on the country.

Congress has been trying to block nearly $2 billion dollars of Iranian assets despite the administration announcement that Tehran had fulfilled its obligations under the nuclear deal.

President Barack Obama’s administration transferred $400 million dollars to Iran earlier this year.