Israel cannot make peace with the Palestinian Authority while it is led by Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said. Lieberman spent his time at the United Nations General Assembly last week meeting with dignitaries from around the world and – despite previous backlash – told them that Abbas is the primary obstacle to peace.

Abbas is uninterested in, and incapable of, providing true leadership, Lieberman accused. Instead, he seeks to use his PA chairmanship to travel the world and incite against Israel, while using Israel as a scapegoat for problems at home, he continued.

Lieberman noted that Israel recently moved to save the PA from financial collapse, a gesture which Abbas repaid with a virulently anti-Israel speech in which he accused Israel of ethnic cleansing and collusing to murder and abuse Arabs.

If the international community truly seeks a treaty between Israel and the PA, it must reject Abbas, he concluded.

Lieberman also discussed the Iranian nuclear program with his foreign counterparts. Iran’s behavior on the international scene is barbaric and threatens peace everywhere, he declared.

If Iran’s nuclear development is not stopped, he said, it will mean the international community has completely lost its power of deterrence.