Palestinian ambassador to Azerbaijan: Mahmoud Abbas is expected to visit Azerbaijan by the end of the year

"The relations between Azerbaijan and Palestine have ancient history. Common religion, traditions, customs and history unite our countries," Nasser A. Kareem, the first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Palestinian Authority to Azerbaijan, said in his interview.

Ambassador said the Palestinian side wants to enhance the relations with Azerbaijan.

"There is a good foundation for this. Azerbaijan has always supported Palestine in the international organizations, including the UN. This policy is still being continued. In its turn, Palestine supports Azerbaijan in the Karabakh problem. Another feature uniting us is that though Azerbaijan and Palestine are Muslim countries, they are secular societies. I think that there is great potential for economic, commercial, scientific and humanitarian relations between the two countries. Now we should improve the economic relations. Students from Palestine are studying in Baku. We need medical workers, engineers. Azerbaijan has great scientific potential in these spheres. Once some of my relatives studied in Baku. Moreover, there are good prospects for cooperation in culture, tourism and exchange of information," he said.

Nasser A. Kareem said Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is expected to visit Azerbaijan by the end of the year: "President Ilham Aliyev invited his Palestinian counterpart to Baku and the invitation was accepted with pleasure. The state visit needs in long and serious preparations. Now we are dealing with the preparation work. It has not been scheduled yet, but we are looking forward to organize the visit by the end of the year. I was appointed to Azerbaijan by Mahmoud Abbas and he urged me to organize this visit. Now our embassy is seriously dealing with this work".

The ambassador also made comments on the recent settlement plan proposing to give a part of Jordanian lands to Palestine. "This is an idea of Israeli hardliners. We have no problems with Jordan and no territorial claims against our neighbor. The idea of joining the Jordanian lands to Palestine is groundless. The Palestinian territories were seized by not Jordan, but Israel and we demand Israel to withdraw from our lands".

The ambassador said currently the negotiations over the settlement of the conflict were suspended. "The negotiations were de facto suspended. We intend to restore the contacts. The Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories must be ended. Only way to the sustainable peace passes through the establishment of the independent Palestinian state. US President Barack Obama said in his UN address last year that the independent Palestinian state must be established by September, 2011. All over the world support the idea of independent Palestinian state".

The Palestinian ambassador expressed his opinion about the processes in Arab countries: "We don’t intend to interfere in the domestic problems of other countries. Every country is unique and every society has own dynamics of developments. We advocate for the stable processes and non- violence everywhere".


/APA/