Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Tuesday for an international conference to be held to launch a new, wider Middle East peace process. Addressing the United Nations Security Council, he said that the conference could be held by mid-May 2018 and would help pave the way to Palestinian statehood. He presented a "peace plan" to revive the comatose Israeli-Palestinian talks with new international mediation -- in which the United States would have less weight. "To solve the Palestine question, it is essential to establish a multilateral international mechanism emanating from an international conference," Abbas said. US President Donald Trumps decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital infuriated the Palestinians, who declared that Washington could no longer play a role as lead mediator in the Middle East peace process. Abbas put the blame for the failure of peace efforts squarely on Israel, saying it was "acting as a state above the law" and had "shut the door on the two-state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "It has transformed the occupation from a temporary situation as per international law into a situation of permanent settlement colonization," he said. Abbas said the conference should lead to full UN membership for the state of Palestine, mutual recognition of Israel and Palestine, and the creation of a new international mechanism to reach a final settlement. The US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, warned that turning to the United Nations and rejecting the US role in peace talks "will get the Palestinian people exactly nowhere toward the achievement of their aspirations." Haley was accompanied to the council meeting by Jason Greenblatt, the US envoy for Middle East peace and Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in law and adviser on Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. White House spokesman Josh Raffel said Washington would present a peace plan “when it is done and the time is right.” The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been deadlocked since a major push by the former US administration of Barack Obama ended in failure in April 2014. The Trump administration is preparing a new peace plan even though chances for agreement appear dim. French UN Ambassador Francois Delattre told the council: “We are open to studying the development of the ways of international accompaniment for the peace process.” Deputy British UN Ambassador Jonathan Allen described US leadership on the issue as “indispensable.” UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov said the international community must continue advocating for "substantial Israeli policy changes" on settlements and stressed that "these are not negotiations between equals." The Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and UN resolutions call on countries to refrain from moving their embassies to the city until its status is resolved in an Israeli-Palestinian deal. In December, the General Assembly voted 128-9, with 35 abstentions, to reject the US decision to recognize Jerusalem. That vote in the 193-nation assembly came after 14 of the 15 council members voted in favor of a similar measure. The United States vetoed that draft resolution.