Palestine opens embassy in Vatican
Vatican City, Holy See : Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas yesterday opened Palestinian embassy at the Vatican.
The diplomatic mission, located in a building facing the Vatican that also houses the embassies of Peru and Burkina Faso.
Relations between the Vatican and the Palestinian Authority turned a new page in 2015 with the signing of an agreement to create a Palestinian embassy at the Vatican.
“We are very grateful about the role that the Holy See has played for a just and lasting peace in the Holy Land, and for having opened an embassy of Palestine in the Vatican for first time,” he said.
Abbas met with Pope Francis for 20 minutes ahead of the embassy opening.
The private audience was the third meeting between Francis and Abbas. The pontiff visited Israel and the Palestinian Territories in 2014 and Abbas made a trip to the Vatican the following year for the canonisation of two Palestinian nuns.
Among the gifts exchanged, Abbas offered the pontiff a stone from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, according to Greg Burke, spokesman for the Holy See.
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