President Basescu accepts invitation to visit Palestinian Autonomous Territories

Visiting president of the National Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas extended Romanian President Traian Basescu an invitation to visit the ‘Palestinian lands’, which Basescu accepted.
‘I assure you I’ll honour your invitation’, Basescu said at the joint press statements he and Abbas held after the bilateral talks on Monday.

Abbas stressed the Romanian president may make the visit ‘any time he wants to, at the moment he thinks appropriate’, adding he will be ‘welcomed very warmly by the Palestinian people’.

Basescu said that he and Abbas during the official talks made ‘a detailed analysis of the negotiations between Fatah and Hamas (the main Palestinian organisations – editor’s note)’, which are of utmost importance for the stability in the Palestinian Autonomous Territories.

‘We made an analysis of the situation in the region chiefly in relation to the situation in Lebanon and the Iranian nuclear program. I informed President Abbas that as early as in June I signed the decree on setting up a diplomatic office in Ramallah (in the West Bank, the headquarters of the Palestinian presidency – editor’s note). I also stressed Romania’s openness to resume the training programs for the young Palestinians in the Romanian universities starting next year’, Basescu said.

He stressed that in nearly two weeks there will be 20 years since Romania recognised the state of Palestine officially, adding that there are currently more than 90 countries having recognised Palestine as a state.

Mahmoud Abbas thanked Basescu for his invitation to visit Romania, underscoring that it is about ‘friendly countries, linked by old and very good relations’.

He said he was referring the role Romania has played in time in the Middle East peace process. ‘It was the first country to have received a Palestinian delegation and one of the first to have recognised the Palestinian state, nearly 20 years ago. We cannot forget that hundreds of young Palestinians trained in the Romania universities and became messengers of the Romanian science and culture’, he said.

The Palestinian leader also thanked for Romania’s readiness to resume the training programs for the young Palestinians in the Romanian universities.

He said that he briefed Basescu, during the talks, on the phase in the talks with Israel currently being conducted and stressed the Palestinian state will continue the negotiations with the Israeli side, with the new government to be set up after the future elections.

‘We also await the results of the elections in the U.S., so that the new American Administration may further sponsor, by means of the Quartet, the negotiations taking place between the two countries. Through the diplomatic channels, we’ll continue the contacts and consultations between the two sides, in all areas’, President Abbas said. AGERPRES