KUWAITI FM MEETS PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT IN WEST BANK
Ramallah, 20 Dzulqa’dah 1435/15 September 2014 (MINA) – Foreign Minister Riyadh al-Malki said on Sunday that President Mahmoud Abbas met with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sabbah Khalid al-Sabbah in Ramallah.
The two discussed regional issues including the preparation of Arab leaders to propose a resolution at the UN Security Council on setting a timeline to end the Israeli occupation and establish a Palestinian state.
In a joint news conference between al-Malki and al-Sabbah, al-Malki said Abbas and al-Sabbah discussed bilateral relations and how this visit opens up a new page in relations between the two countries, Maan News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting
Al-Malki added that two agreements were signed, one concerning the formation of a ministerial committee on relations between Palestine and Kuwait, and the second on the formation of a committee for talks between the two foreign ministries.
“I am extremely happy for this historic trip to Palestine,” Al-Sabbah told reporters.
He added that he relayed a written and signed letter from the Kuwaiti emir about improving relations with Palestine and exchanging opinions on developments in the region.
The visit followed the inauguration of a Palestinian embassy in Kuwait in April 2013, 22 years after the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Kuwait was shut down.
Kuwait had previously been a major host country for Palestinians since the Nakba of 1948 when Israel displaced more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in what became Israel.
By 1989, the Palestinian community in Kuwait was estimated at around 400,000, compared to the native Kuwaiti population of roughly 550,000.
Thousands fled when Iraq invaded Kuwait the next year, however, and hundreds of thousands more were deported following the flight of Iraqi troops due to the Palestinian leadership’s pro-Iraq stance.
In 2004 during a visit to the Gulf state, Abbas issued an official apology to Kuwait for the leadership’s stance 14 years before, after Kuwait said it had forgiven the Palestinians. (T/P002/P3)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
