Palestinians on Thursday slammed U.S. President Barack Obama's address to the U.N. General Assembly, calling it a display of U.S. bias towards Israel.

Commentators, politicians and ordinary Palestinians alike said Obama's speech on Wednesday, just days before the Palestinians apply to become a U.N. member state, showed Washington was incapable of serving as a fair broker between Israel and the Palestinians.

U.S. President Barack Obama stressed Wednesday there is no "short cut" to peace between Israel and the Palestinians as he sought to head off a showdown over a Palestinian bid for full U.N. membership.

Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Obama made the Middle East conflict the center point of his speech before he was due to hold crucial meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the diplomatic conflict.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday called for U.N. Security Council sanctions on Syria, saying there was no excuse for inaction when people were being “tortured and murdered” by their government.

"For the sake of Syria -- and the peace and security of the world -- we must speak with one voice. Now is the time for the United Nations Security Council to sanction the Syrian regime, and to stand with the Syrian people," Obama told the United Nations General Assembly.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in New York Wednesday to attend the U.N. General Assembly, overshadowed by a Palestinian bid to seek membership of the world body as a state.

"The prime minister has landed," an Israeli official waiting to greet him at the airport told Agence France Presse. Netanyahu was due to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama within hours to discuss the looming Palestinian showdown.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has submitted a list of requests for help from the United States to counter Kurdish separatists, Anatolia news agency said Wednesday.

"There is a list of requests we have conveyed to them regarding the fight against the PKK," Erdogan was quoted as saying by Anatolia, referring to the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday discussed the need to "increase pressure" on the Syrian regime to aid the pro-democracy protests.

The two leaders "talked about the need to increase pressure on the Assad regime, in order to lead to an outcome that is responsive to the aspirations of the Syrian people," a White House official said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday that he isn’t after a “confrontation” with the United States or any other country over a bid for U.N. membership of a Palestinian state.

“The Palestinian people have the right to have a recognized state in the international community. This is our right,” Abbas told An Nahar.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday called on Turkey and Israel to repair their ties strained by a crisis over a deadly 2010 flotilla raid.

"The president underscored his interest in seeing a resolution of that issue between those two countries who are both allies of ours, and encouraged them to work towards that end," said a top White House advisor said.

Texas Governor Rick Perry slammed President Barack Obama's "appeasement" of Palestinians as dangerous and naive on Tuesday, in his first major foreign policy address since emerging as the top Republican White House hopeful.

Seizing on the diplomatic conflagration over U.N. recognition of Palestinian statehood, Perry blasted Obama for not being strong enough in his support of Israel and allowing the Palestinian bid to proceed.

Libya's interim leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil told U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday that fugitive former leader Moammar Gadhafi was still in the country, a U.S. official said.

"Chairman Jalil ... said that he believes that Gadhafi is still in Libya," said Derek Chollet, senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council, after the two leaders met at the United Nations.