Palestinian Leadership Considers Annulling Oslo Peace Accords With Israel at U.N.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is considering opening a “new chapter in Palestinian history” in his U.N. General Assembly speech later this month, with the Palestinian leadership “in favor” of voiding the Oslo peace accords with Israel, a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Monday.

The Oslo Accords, the first signed in 1993 and the second in 1995, outlined a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians with the aim of fulfilling the “right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.”

The accords created the Palestinian Authority (PA), which today controls the West Bank and coordinates with Israel on security matters. It also created Areas A, B and C of the West Bank, with A under the PA's control, C under Israeli control and B under shared control.

The issue of whether Abbas would make the symbolic statement at the U.N. General Assembly was originally going to be decided at the meeting of the Palestinian National Council on September 14-15 but this has now been postponed until later in the year, the official confirmed. However, discussions over whether Abbas should make the statement will continue and a decision will be made before September 30.

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Grant Rumley, researcher of Palestinian and Jordanian politics at the Washington D.C.-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), said that such a move at the U.N. would antagonize Israel and effectively send a message to the international community that it has to deal with the Palestinians.

“It's ironic that the Palestinians are going to announce at the U.N. that they are annulling the Oslo Accords when this whole U.N. campaign basically killed the Oslo Accords. This has been the Israeli counter-argument to it,” he says.

“The Oslo Accords do not mandate any type of foreign relations with the PA but Abbas, since 2009, has blurred the lines between the two and used the PA as what he runs his foreign policy through,” he adds.

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