Palestinians will not accept any US peace plan: Abbas

The U.S. can no longer play a mediating role in the Middle East peace process, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday after talks with his French counterpart in Paris.

Speaking at a joint news conference, Abbas and Emmanuel Macron welcomed Thursday's UN vote against the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The vote saw 128 countries describe the U.S. decision as “null and void”. Nine countries voted against. The UN General Assembly vote was preceded by U.S. threats to withdraw aid from countries and cut backing for the UN.

"Following Trump's decision to move the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, the United States is no longer an honest mediator in the peace process. We will not accept any plans from the United States because of [this] partisan spirit and this violation of international law," Abbas said.

"The United States has excluded itself from the political process of peace," he added.

The French leader said the U.S. has "marginalized itself in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict".

Unlike former Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who expressed his wish in November 2014 that France recognizes "without delay" the state of Palestine in case of failure of the French initiative to revive the peace process, Macron has repeatedly showed he is against such an approach.

"There is no alternative to the solution of the two states, and no solution of the two states without agreement between the parties on Jerusalem," Macron said.

"I asked the Israeli prime minister to resume negotiations and stop the colonization."

The French president said he will be visiting Palestine and Israel next year in a bid to give a boost to peace talks.

Apart from the U.S. and Israel, just seven nations opposed the non-binding resolution although 35 of the 193 UN member states abstained and 21 were absent from the vote.

On Monday, the U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution backed by the 14 other members calling on Trump to reverse his Jerusalem declaration.