Abbas Meets with Venezuelan President in Caracas

Ramallah, 15 Dzulhijjah 1437/1 September 2016 (MINA) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Saturday met with his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas in order to brief him on continued Israeli escalations of violence, settlement expansions, and “assaults on unarmed civilians and holy places.”

Abbas arrived in Caracas in the evening and has been scheduled to take part in the 17th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which is taking place in Porlamar city on Margarita Island.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki joined Abbas, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, Abbas’ spokesperson Nabil Abu Rdeina, Presidential Adviser of Diplomatic Affairs Majdi al-Khalidi, and Palestinian Ambassador to Venezuela Linda Subih.

Venezuela and Palestine have long held a mutually supportive diplomatic relationship, as Maduro and his predecessor late President Hugo Chavez have been vocal critics of Israeli policies against Palestinians.

During the deadly Israeli assault of 2008-09 on the besieged Gaza Strip, deemed “Operation Cast Lead” by Israeli authorities, Chavez expelled the Israeli ambassador and several other Israeli foreign diplomats from the country and cut all political ties to the Israeli state in protest of the killing of Palestinians during the Israeli offensive, which left at least 1,400 Palestinians dead, the majority of whom were civilians, and included women and children.

In 2009, Chavez announced that Venezuela had officially recognized the state of Palestine.

Close behind Chavez’s footprints.

Maduro, who rose to presidency in 2013, has continued close behind Chavez’s footprints in his support for Palestine.

During the 2014 Israeli offensive on Gaza, which left at 1,462 Palestinian civilians killed, a third of whom were children, Maduro publicly stated that Venezuala “vigorously condemns the unfair and disproportionate military response by the illegal state of Israel against the heroic Palestinian people.”

Venezuela, along with four other Latin American countries, recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv and equated the Israeli assault to a “genocide,” and was one of the first countries in the world to take diplmatic actions against Israel during the offensive.

Last year, Maduros announced that Palestine would be given full embassy status in Venezuela, and has continued to express his support for the Palestinian struggle.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian plight has remained a central issue among left-wing movements in Venezuela, and much of Latin America.

However, following the 2014 Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, popular support for Palestine spread out from leftist groups to include Latin Americans from more moderate political backgrounds who strongly condemned the Israeli assault on Gaza. (T/R07/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)