Greek parliament votes unanimously to recognise state of Palestine during Abbas visit

Abbas is expected in Athens on Sunday ahead of the vote and will meet President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Las week, the foreign affairs committee of the parliament unanimously approved a motion recognizing the State of Palestine.

House Speaker Nikos Voutsis read out a resolution calling for the recognition and handed a copy of it to Mr. Abbas.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in Athens on Monday that his national authority was going to issue State of Palestine passports within 2016.

The Palestinian president’s speech is at the moment ongoing at the Greek parliament’s Senate chamber. “A process that will give again hope to the Palestinian people, but also to the Israeli people, for a better future, for a peaceful coexistence of two peoples in the same region”, the Greek premier said.

In 2012, Palestine was recognized by the United Nations as a non-member observer state.

The Greek government has committed to the recognition of the State of Palestine, extending over the territories that Israel occupied in 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital.

“When the time is deemed to be right, Greece will make the necessary steps”, he said.
So far, only eight European Union member states have recognised the Palestinian state.

The resolution is rather symbolic in nature and doesn’t pave the way for an official recognition of the Palestinian state.

“We call on countries to support a two-state solution on the Palestine issue”.

Parliaments in Britain, Ireland and France have passed similar resolutions.