WEST BANK: Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad meets Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim in Ramallah

Record ID: 561408

  • Title: WEST BANK: Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad meets Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim in Ramallah
  • Date: 12th January 2009
  • Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (JANUARY 12, 2009) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER SALAM FAYYAD'S OFFICE PALESTINIAN FLAGS OUTSIDE OFFICE BRAZILIAN FOREIGN MINISTER CELSO AMORIM ARRIVING AND ENTERING BUILDING VARIOUS OF FAYYAD AND AMORIM DURING MEETING SECURITY OUTSIDE MEETING ROOM VARIOUS OF FAYYAD HEADING PALESTINIAN CABINET MEETING VARIOUS OF MINISTERS IN MEETING FAYYAD AT MEETING WIDE OF MEETING TABLE VARIOUS OF MEETING
  • Embargoed: 27th January 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1XZ1T91H8CSUBULUTRNSJYNUY
  • Story Text: Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Monday (January 12) met with Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, before convening his weekly cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
    Amorim arrived in the region on Sunday (January 11) after a visit to Damascus where he met Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.
    Amorim is one of a string of foreign diplomats who have travelled through the region over the past week to try and reach an end to the fighting in Gaza, which has killed nearly 900 Palestinians and 13 Israelis since December 27, but leaders on both sides have so far declined truce offers.
    Last week Fayyad said Palestinian deaths from Israel's Gaza offensive amount to a national catastrophe recalling the 1948-49 war in which the Jewish state was founded.
    Palestinians consider Israel's May 1948 declaration of independence their "Nakba", or catastrophe, citing the forced flight of hundreds of thousands of Arabs during the ensuing battles over what had been British-ruled Palestine.
    Fayyad is a leading figure in U.S.-sponsored efforts to advance peace talks and restructure the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank.
    Hamas runs a separate administration with its own prime minister in the Gaza Strip.
    As Fayyad convened a weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah on Monday, Israeli troops fought fierce gun battles with Hamas fighters, keeping military pressure on the Islamist group while avoiding urban warfare that would complicate ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the Gaza war.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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