speeches from the united nations general assembly throughout the day. right here on al jazeera america. ♪ 15. >> the palestinian flag to be raised at the united nations. we are watching al jazeera live from london. i'm david forest. also coming up in the next 30 minutes. russia airstrikes on target in syria. russia said it is ready to talk to the united states about military cooperation. sending reinforcements to k

unduz, and the battle is proving harder than they hoped. the indian train bombing which left 183 people dead. >> the speech at the u.n. general assembly to declare he's no longer bound by agreements with israel. effectively throwing out the oslo accord of 1993. mahmood abbas said every aspect of the agreement had already been violated by israel. >> here we declare that they refuse to commit to the agreement signed with us, which render us and release of the palestinian prisoners in accord dance with our agreements,

israel has thus left us no choice but to insist that we will not remain the only ones committed to the implementation of those agreements while israel continuously violates them. we therefore declare that we cannot continue to be bound by these signed agreements with israel. >> well, that was about 60 minutes ago inside the chamber of the u.n. general assembly. this is outside of the same building. we expect to see mahmood abbas any moment now. the flagpole that you see any part is still empty at the top. you can't tell at that shot. james bays will confirm with me that there is no flag at the moment, but there should be soon, yes?

>> david, that's right. i'll keep my voice down because the dignitaries are right behind me. we do have mahmoud abbas accompanied by the u.n. secretary general. i'll move out of the way so we can watch what is going on here. among the dignitaries many ambassadors from various airplanarab and islamic countries, we see the foreign minister of jordan of iraq, the foreign minister of iran and the foreign minister of yemen in fact. among the western nations attending this flag ceremony, i'm not telling you that i've got all of them, but the ones i've been able to spy is the french foreign minister and his norwegian counterpart. i don't spy at this stage a representative from the united states, which i think is interesting. a very crowded shot here, i'm afraid, hopefully you're able to

see a little of what is going on here at the rose garden. the proceedings starting now. >> james, i'm sure you continue the conversation of what--in terms of the absence of the united states, was the u.s. not one of those countries that other abstained or avoided voting for this flag. >> yes, the u.s. opposed the whole idea of the flag being raised. there were a number of countries who is did that and said why should you change the traditions of the united nations, it's 70 years old, and now the new tradition of raising flags of non-member states. but in the end of the general assembly voted overwhelmingly that it should lift the flags of the two states that are observers but not members of the united nations. those are palestine, whose flag is going to be raised in the

next few minutes. also the vatican. their flag was raised at the united nations a few days ago. it was no ceremony and it is flying at the front of the u.n. the speech now by the president of the u.n. general assembly. this new president of the general assembly, former speaker of the danish parliament. it is today we implement the general assembly by raising the flag of the state of palestine. president abbas, congratulations to you and to the palestinian people. this is an additional acknowledgment of the contribution which none member of services make of the work of the u.n. general assembly, and which the palestinian people

addressing our common challenges. pleased that on your way to the sessions you will now experience the same expiring sentiment that we all do when we see our colors flying at the u.n. headquarters. but on this day we, of course, keenly aware of the urgent need of real improvements on the ground and the peaceful settlement of the israeli-palestinian conflict. one that fulfills the vision of an independent sovereign democratic continuous viable state listening side by side in peace with israel. we called that the general assembly has stretched, cloaked the permanent responsibility of the united nations towards the question of palestine until it is satisfactorily resolved in all its aspects.

in this beautiful rose garden we are surrounded by symbols. symbols that signify the pain caused by conflict and difference of division. symbols that reminds us of the ideals of peace, unity, and human rights. as we leaflet us remember these symbols and renew our energy and our commitment to dialogue, tolerance and lasting peace among nations and in particular for the people of palestine. thank you very much. >> well, in the background sergei lavrov. we see bang can i moon with mahmood abbas, in the red tie. the turkish prime minister. we would be able to see u.n. secretary general if it weren't for the scrambling of the

cameraman and the broad back of the gentleman in front. but i think we can probably hear him. >> foreign ministers, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen and friends, this is a day of pride for palestinians around the world. it is a day of hope. it is a reminder that symbols are important, and that the symbol can lead to action in the right direction. the symbolism of raising your flag at the united nations reflect the commitment of the palestinian authorities to pursue the long held agreement of the palestinian people for their own state. it also symbolizes the longstanding commitment of the united nations to support palestinian aspirations. we can be under no illusion that this ceremony represents the

palestinian statehood that requires decisive action to balance national unity. insuring that the west bank in gaza integrated under single authority now is the time to support initiatives which will preserve the two-state solution and create the conditions for a return for meaningful negotiations on the basis of the agreed framework. now is the time for both israelis and palestinians for a peaceful settlement, and at last the real station of two states for two peoples. when we unfurl the palestinian flag in its proper place among

the family of nations as a sovereign member state of the united nations. may the raising of this flag give rise to the hope among the palestinian people and the international community that palestinian statehood is achievable. let us continue to work together to realize the aspirations that this flag carries. israel and palestine, living side by side in peace and security. thank you. [applause] >> perhaps the hope given the president has said at the assembly. secretary general ban ki-moon saying that two-state solution is achievable. although that man, about an hour ago suggesting it's a long, long way off.

>> in the name of the palestinian people i raise the flag of the state of palestine in the united nations today. >> in this march towards freedom and independence, i say to my people everywhere of their living, raise the flag of palestine very high because it is the symbol of our palestinian identity.

it is a day, a proud day and honor of palestinian nationalism. we convey it to be martyrs to the prisoners, to the wounded, and to those who have given their lives while they were trying to raise this flag. >> and i say to all of them, to the sons of our palestinian people who are steadfast and patient everywhere, that is

coming, no doubt, and the day for raising this flag for the state of palestine will be coming soon on top of jerusalem, the capital of our palestinian state, god willing. [applause] we declare from this day, the 30th of september will be the day of the palestinian flag.

on this occasion i thank the president of the united nation, all the distinguished guests and everyone who is attending this function and being with us, we thank you very much for being with us. we see th caesar guy lavrov, the russian foreign minister. we're concentrating on this at the moment because of the immediacy of it and the importance of what mahmood abbas has to say. sergei lavrov among the many people whose focus has been events in syria and what russia intends to do now having launched it's first airstrikes inside syria.

sergei lavrov talking with john kerry on the sidelines. we have not gone into that in some detail at the moment because of what we've been seeing right here, and hearing from mahmood abbas, and james, i hope you can still hear me. there's awful loft people with awful lot on their mind in the rose garden. >> yes, in order to talk to you i've ducked behind one of the rose bushes so i'm not interview witinterview--interfering with the ceremony. the flag is going to rise up the flagpole, which for the palestinians is a very symbolic moment. the israelis called this some

sort of stunt. but they said no, we need to show the palestinian people that we're making progress. the international court was progress, and now this another demonstration to the palestinian people that things are progressing in a positive direction in terms of the diplomacy. we heard mahmoud abbas say in his speech in terms of security terms things are not moving in the right direction. the flag of the state of palestine for the first time, 70 years in the history of the united nations, a conflict that has lasted much of the time that the ] has been in place. the flag of the state of palestine is flying at the united nations for the first time. >> james, perhaps now you can emerge from the bushes.

and give us your thoughts on what we heard earlier on. we've heard the back slapping and the handshaking and the words of mahmood abbas, but he was pretty much suggesting during his speech before the u.n. general assembly a short while ago we have heard a bit of it. you and i were listening to this together. he was pretty much saying that the oslo accord are dead now. >> yes, very much. we were told that there would be an important part of the last bit of the speech of the palestinian president, and that related to the oslo accords. that signing in the white house.

and yasser arafat some 22 years ago when there was a peace. the palestinians would get slowly control of services and security in those areas. well, the basic point of the palestinian president when he spoke in the general assembly. that's the hole behind me, when he spoke about an hour ago was well israel is really not going to any of these. they are whenever they want carrying out security operations in areas that are not supposed to be in their remix. if they're no not obeying the oslo accord, we are not either, and they'll treat israel as an occupying power. that means that israel should be responsible for security and services in palestinian areas.

that's going to be pretty much impossible in the gaza strip because the israeli policy there is to be surrounding gaza with a wall, and basically lock it off with what some would argue is almost prison-like conditions and seal it off, and there are going to be israels going into gaza any time soon unless there is another war as we've seen several times in previous years. in the west bank the israelis are more active. will they take up that challenge that's been laid down by mahmood abbas? that's not clear. it's not clear what he will do on the crowd, whether his actions will match rather strong words. does it mean for example that the palestinian police force that patrols those areas are going to stop doing their work? that's not clear. it's interesting that on one hand we have israel has broken the system, so israel can now run it. on the other we have the flag flying at the palestinian--at

the united nations, and all countries in the world should recognize palestine, david. >> james, thank you very much, indeed. the palestinian flag now to palestinian territory. on the occupied west bank. my colleague is in ramallah. often when you have a politician giving a major speech it's up to officials to come out afterwards and say this is what we really mean. this is the details that mattered. have you had any of that from people involved with the palestinian authority who are still there in the occupied west bank but not in the united nations? >> not a huge amount. we do--we have heard from analysts who are parsing through that speech, seizing on that specific line where mr. abbas said that they are no longer bound to these agreements.

however, there is the caveat at the end of that sentence, which is as long as israel is not committed to them. i think that's the most important thing here so as long israel isn't committed then they are no longer bound to it as well. now what that means as days come--as the days unfold we don't really know. we don't have to pay attention to israeli prime minister after the united nations speech in 24 hours from now, and see if he'll address mr. abbas' comments, he most certainly will. it will be interesting to see what he has to say about the oslo agreements. will he say yes, we'll commit to the oslo accords, then it nullifies mr. abbas' comments to a degree. as we're saying there is a caveat. as long as israel is not implementing the agreements reach, then the palestinians are no longer bound to them. but if we have israeli leaders saying yes we've made mistakes and we need to move forward,

perhaps there is some wiggle room. in the background of all this, we need to consider the negotiation side of things. of course, these haven't taken place for a year, year and a half since the last round of talks broke down. talks brokered by u.s. secretary of state john kerry. it's very telling when u.s. president barack obama made his speech to the u.s. general assembly just a few days ago it was very telling the one thing he didn't mention was the israeli-palestinian conflict. he has mentioned it in every single speech he has made since being elected u.s. president since 2009 on wards. this year he did not. leading many to believe that the white house simply isn't in any--rather simply doesn't have the appetite to pursue these talks. a very difficult situation as mr. abbas tries to move forward. >> thank you. there in ramallah.

>> going out to some other global news, secretary of state john kerry has raised concerns about russia's intentions in syria after russia launched it's first airstrikes against isil targets. 20 airstrikes, as we understand. this is the city of homs. bashar al-assad had asked for him. they said that the the kurdish formations. the armed ranks of the syrian

opposition. in one word those who are standing up against isil on the ground as well as outside players who in one form counter act terrorist. >> that was sergei lavrov in front of the u.n. security council. this is what the u.s. secretary of state john kerry had to say to the same body. >> the united states supports any genuine effort to fight isil. and al qaeda affiliated groups. especially al nusra. if russia's recent actions.

>> peter sharp is in moscow for us. is this about support for president assad or determination to defeat the terror groups. which john kerry said he would welcome. >> he gave a very, very clear warning to president assad where he actually informed him just

what the price of russia's support is going to be, and he said to him he has got to start to cooperate to cooperate and make concessions. >> a russian build up would, quote, escalate the conflict. create loss of innocent life. risk confrontation with the anti-isil coalition. has that sentiment changed? >> it was just about 24 hours

ago that the u.s. said that it was going to be engaging in so-called deconfriction talks with the russian military in essence to make certain that coalition jets and russian jets don't get in each other's way and inadvertently fire at each other and start a shooting war over syria. apparently there was an hour's notice from to the u.s. embassy in baghdad before the airstrike around homs got under way. while officials are talking about deconfriction. i use that term in quotes because it's a particular military term, it is certainly a matter that has greatly raised concerns here in washington. we're expecting to hear in the next 30 minutes or so from the defense secretary ash carter about wednesday' development and whether or not the u.s. believes

russia when it's only going after isil fighters. when it's not going after members of the syrian opposition, people who want to overthrow bashar al-assad or other groups. it's a worrisome situation for the obama administration because of the risk of the unknown, the potential for some sort of deadly conflict. this is not the situation that the obama administration wanted. >> you see, over the last two to three weeks the united states, germany, happens, nat perhaps, members of the nato alliance, have reaction to what the russians have planned in syria, and they're not simply there to prop up assad. >> that's the main concern, trying to move bashar al-assad

out of power, and the softens, as it were, would be the idea that if there is an negotiated political transition that bashar al-assad would get a little bit of time during that transition to remain as president, but then he would have to leave. the airstrike it is being wildly assumed in washington are very much accelerating that collar or perhaps putting off the negotiations for a political settlement, which is what the u.s. has says it ultimately wants to see inside syria as a way trying to end civil war. but really it comes down to right now making certain that these two separate military operations one carried out by russia, the other by the u.s.-led coalition don't get in each other's way even though they all agree that they want to go after isil. >> thank you, ros, another suggestion being that assad remain with 20% geographically

of his own country. we're nowhere near at the moment. if you want to get the headlines. you want more of what is behind the headlines, too, go to www.aljazeera.com. www.aljazeera.com. we'll be back with the headlines. >> russia launches it's first airstrike in syria. the new worries in washington. the palestinian flag is raised over the u.n. for the first time as the palestinian president blasts israel in the peace process. the status quo is unacceptable. and congress moves closer to holding off a government shutdown, but the short ter