Sweden plays important role in Mideast

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that Sweden is playing a great important role in backing the peace process in the Middle East.

"Sweden played this role when it recognized the establishment of a Palestinian state on 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital," Abbas told a joint news briefing with Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom in Ramallah.

Direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians had stopped in April 2014 due to deep disputes on the ongoing Israeli policy of settlement expansion in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The United States sponsored the bilateral talks between the two sides for nine months. However, they failed to reach a breakthrough due to difference on the issues of settlement, security and borders of the future Palestinian state.

"The Swedish back the principle of the two-state solution which is in risk now due to the practices and policies of the Israeli government, mainly expansion of settlements," said Abbas, according to the official news agency WAFA.

Abbas stressed on strengthening the ties between the state of Palestine and Sweden "to serve the Palestinian people and their just cause on all international community levels."

Meanwhile, Wallstrom said her country is keen to keep supporting the peace process based on the principle of the two-state solution, adding "the Swedish support to establishing a Palestinian state is part of the Swedish support to peace."

Wallstrom arrived in the region to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories, however, Israel refused to receive her because of her hostile positions towards Israel, according to the Israeli media reports.

In January, she called for an international investigation into the Israeli killings of so many Palestinians in the wave of violent tension that broke out in the Palestinian territories in October last year. Her remarks outraged the Israeli government officials.

source: Xinhua