Pakistan visit: Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas due on Feb 16

ISLAMABAD:

President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas will arrive in Pakistan on February 16 on a three-day official visit.

The Palestinian leader is scheduled to hold talks with President Asif Ali Zardari in Lahore, official sources said. Both leaders will exchange views on bilateral issues of mutual interest, as well as issues pertaining to the Muslim world. A meeting with Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf is also being worked out.

This will be Abbas’ second visit to Pakistan in three years. He had extensive talks over Israeli aggression against Palestinian people with President Zardari during his first visit in 2010.

A senior official of the Foreign Office said that as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and Vice-Chairman of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Pakistan is considered highly influential for Palestinians.

Analyst Lt Gen (retd) Talat Masood agrees that Pakistan’s role is important for an independent Palestinian state. “Islamabad can take more effective steps to muster maximum support to force Israel to recognise a two-state solution and right of return of Palestinian refugees to their land,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2013.