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Palestinian president plans visit to ‘sister’ Iran

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has confirmed that he plans to make an official visit to Iran soon to strengthen ties with the Islamic Republic.

Speaking to a delegation of Polish journalists in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday, Abbas said Iran was "a sister and neighbor state."

The Palestinian president, who resigned from his post as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) executive committee on Saturday, added that a date for his Tehran trip has not been set yet.

Pointing to the presence of Palestine’s embassy in Tehran since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, Abbas hailed Iran for its recognition of the Palestinian state.

Earlier in August, Ahmed Majdalani, a PLO official, visited Iran and held talks with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif about Abbas’ planned trip to Tehran and the possibility of appointing an Iranian non-resident ambassador to Palestine, the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency reported.

"Our relationship with Iran is an urgent necessity concerning international and regional developments," Majdalani said.

During the meeting between Zarif and Majdalani, both sides also agreed to set up a “high-profile” joint committee to cooperate in political, commercial and educational issues.

Referring to a nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries reached in July, Majdalani said it could “lay the grounds for an international conference which could help clear the region from nuclear weapons, including [those of] Israel.”

Iran and the six world powers – the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – reached the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on July 14.

Abbas visited Iran back in 2012 for the 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Tehran.


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