Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made it absolutely clear during his epic two-hour speech to the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) that the US-led track for negotiating with Israel is no longer acceptable to the Palestinians. He also told the 80-member PCC assembled in Ramallah on Jan. 14 that he will not support military or anti-Israeli armed attacks, expressing his preference for diplomatic and peaceful popular resistance.

While speaking in favor of popular struggle and expressing continued support for the need for dialogue with the Israelis, it was clear that Abbas’ preferred and most-trusted diplomatic approach is the international track. This is where Palestinian power exists, as seen when 128 UN member states defied US pressure and voted in support of Palestine to uphold the status of Jerusalem at the UN General Assembly on Dec. 21, 2017, after the US administration of President Donald Trump recognized the city as the capital of Israel on Dec. 6.

At the meeting, Abbas repeatedly praised Palestine’s UN mission and mentioned Ambassador Riyad Mansour three times in his 6,000-word speech, revealing his clear preference for multilateral and international diplomacy instead of continued US monopolization of the peace process, given that the Trump administration has exposed its bias by offering unilateral support to Israel, in particular on the issue of Jerusalem.

Feda Abdelhady-Nasser, deputy representative of the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations in New York, told Al-Monitor, “On the basis of international law, and using the international instruments at our disposal, we can do a lot to safeguard the rights of the Palestinian people until we can realize those rights, whether in terms of the right to self-determination and independence or the rights of the Palestine refugees, as enshrined in UN resolutions.”