The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations listed on Thursday a number of feasible options for the resumption of a collective Middle East peace process, including an effort led by the U.N. Security Council, or alternately by a "Quartet" expanded to include China and Arab states or even an international conference.
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour laid out the possibilities after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last month said he would only accept a broad, internationally backed panel to broker peace talks with Israel.
But all the option he listed would include the United States, despite the fact that the Palestinian leadership has repeatedly stated in recent weeks, since U.S. President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital on Dec. 6, that the U.S. can no longer mediate peace negotiations due to its obvious bias in favor of Israel.
"We're saying a collective approach involving several players at minimum would have a better chance of succeeding than the approach of only one country that is so close to Israel," Mansour told reporters.
The Palestinians are also furious at Trump for cutting the funding for the U.N. agency dedicated to assisting Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA.
Mansour said a collective peace process could "be in the format of the [U.N.] Security Council – that would be something that we will look at seriously."
"The Quartet plus China plus the League of Arab States plus maybe others ... we could also look at that," he added, referring to the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators that comprises the U.N., the U.S., the European Union and Russia.
"Or the collective process might be of the nature of the French Paris conference or international conference," he said.
Last year, France invited dozens of countries to Paris to show support for a peace process.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Abbas plan to discuss a possible new mediation mechanism to replace the Middle East Quartet when they meet next week, the Russian Interfax news agency reported Wednesday, citing a Palestinian diplomat in Russia.
Abbas is due to address the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 20 during the body's monthly meeting on the Middle East.
Trump has said his administration had a peace proposal in the works.
Mansour said the U.S. had given no indication of what the peace plan might be. "But of course if they started with Jerusalem is off the table and punishing UNRWA ... what is left on the table?" he said. "They lost the neutrality that is required of any broker that helps two parties to reach a peace treaty."
"The old approach failed, and we're looking for a new approach," Mansour said.
