Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s remarks Monday criticizing Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas were “deeply troubling,” according to UN spokesman Richard Miron.

Miron, spokesman for UN Special Envoy for the Peace Process Robert Serry, told the PA-based Ma’an news agency that Lieberman’s statement “appears to be an attempt to delegitimize President Abbas.”

He called Lieberman’s remarks “inflammatory,” adding that such statements “undermine trust at a time when the Quartet is working towards the resumption of negotiations.”

Lieberman labeled Abbas “the biggest obstacle to an agreement between the Palestinian Authority and us.” He said that Abbas fears a fate similar to that of fallen dictators Mubarak and Qaddafi, and that if he does meet such a fate, this would be “a blessing” because “anyone who follows him would be better.”

Abbas, said Lieberman, “deals only with his private agenda and the only thing that is important to him is his place in history and how he will spend the rest of his life in leisure and luxury.”