In an excllusive interview with the Palestinian Foreign Minister H.E. Riyad al-Malki - called for Strengthening Afro-Arab relations

At the heels of he African Union summit that took place this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia SSI’s Samson Haileyesus met with Riyad al-Malki  Palestinian foreign minister and discussed with him on a range of issues relating to Palestinian- African relations, relations with Ethiopia and the Palestinian people’s struggle:
SSI: What brings you to addis Abab?
Foreign minister Riyad al-Malki : As you are aware we are coming to attend the meetings of the African Union foreign minister meetings we are invited as observers to the African Union and so we attend the level of foreign ministers and at the level of the summit.  i came first of all to try to develop and maintain bilateral relations with Ethiopia and also meet as many African ministers as possible always and thirdly as you are aware in the agenda of the foreign ministers there is a permanent item about Palestine and the situation in the middle east and so we work closely with the au to prepare the draft resolutions on Palestine and always the Palestine foreign minister delivers a speech where he describes the situation in Palestine, some foreign ministers ask questions comment on it in order for the draft resolution to be adopted by the foreign ministers and them to be passed by the foreign ministers for approval. This is what brought me to Addis Ababa
SSI: What message from the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas have you brought with you?
 
Riyad al-Malki : First of all the message of condolence and sorrows for the tragic incident that happened on the shores of Lebanon we sympathise with the families of the victims and we want to really to express our sorrow though the Minster of foreign affairs. Secondly we wanted to thank Ethiopia for the strong committed position that it always had in support of the just cause of the Palestinian people. And also through my president wanted to see how we could develop further our relations in order for him to come to Ethiopia on a state visit. And of course a message of solidarity with the African Union and expecting to obtain renewal of African commitment to the just cause of Palestine people this is really the message I bring with me from  President Mahmoud Abbas  he really very much considers himself to be strongly attached to the African cause, we have been committed in the past to the struggle of African peoples  and right now we are of course receiving support, solidarity from the African countries the struggle of the Palestinian people so we are really talking about brothers and when brothers talks between themselves they are so open frank and try to see what is really good for both sides and this exactly the message I brought.  I had a meeting with the Ethiopian foreign minister it was a very good, very useful meeting. He made a visit to Palestine a couple of months back it was an excellent visit and there we signed an agreement on framework cooperation, we discussed on how to develop the different areas of cooperation and we have specified on areas of agriculture we are going to send a a team of experts form the ministry of agriculture to see how we could develop relations on that level and see to improve the agricultural situation here in Ethiopia, we are expecting to develop three level projects where Ethiopia will be the recipient, Palestine will present technical expertise and a third country will finance major projects. we talked about education and the minister expressed his willingness to offer scholarships for Palestinian students to come and study here we will reciprocate I hope when I speak to the heads of universities in Palestine offering scholarships for Ethiopian students to go to Palestine and study Arabic, the Middle Eastern studies and other areas related to our part of the world and we talked about health where we discussed the possibility of sending Palestinian doctors to come and work in different underdeveloped areas here in Ethiopia and we also talked about cooperation on civil aviation where Ethiopia has an added value. This is really what we discussed of course we have also discussed matters of cooperation, on security matters, exchange information because we are living in a world where it is important among friends t try to help each other in these particular areas obviously you know we jointly hosted the Palestinians flag on that residence we appreciate very much that the government and the municipality has offered us the residence and so we have hoisted the flag and we also informed the foreign minister that we want o reciprocate as soon as possible hoping that Ethiopia will take a decisions to open a diplomatic mission in Palestine the moment they decide to do this we will be more than willing to offer them also either the embassy or the residence in reciprocal ways and we will be able to raise the Ethiopian flag on Palestinian soil this really was part of the activities we had. I do believe in my visit to Ethiopia we had an excellent opportunity to exchange views and enhance our relations this really strengthened father not only our bilateral relations but also I can even say personal relations between the foreign minister and myself I think this is very important and very useful there is a good chemistry between us. He is very close at heart, he is very humanistic, he has been touched very much by his trip to Palestine and we share the same human values, the same concern and the same commitment to look for peace and stability for everybody and so we have committed ourselves to working closely in the near future in that regard and he has invited me to come on an official visit to Addis and we have agreed that the moment all technical teams will finalise their agreements and we will crown that by launching our development projects.

SSI: Have you conducted other bilateral consultations with other nations during your visit to Ethiopia?
Riyad al-Malki : Of course I met with not less than 15-20 African foreign minister because it is unique opportunity. you know that you have many foreign ministers here and available it will be absolutely a great opportunity to meet with them and exchange views and see what could be done to improve bilateral relations between Palestine and African countries. But of course we always look at Ethiopia as a key state that through its excellent relations with almost all African countries they could really open many doors towards such countries and the idea is really to maintain contact with such countries to have exchanges of views and to see what we could do to support and what to expect form them. What we expect mainly is political support in the different regional and international arenas whenever the issue of Palestine is being raised we expect from our brother here in Africa for their tacit support to the cause of Palestine and we have seen that happening year after year in the general assembly of the united nations its is clear the support we obtain form this continent and even in other matters and also the draft resolution that I related to regarding to the au it is very clear that its shows the African union’s commitment to support the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence and it is very clear mainitnaing the relations and exchanges is a must for us to really stay in contact and really to obtain the necessary political support that we need at the international arenas.

SSI: Could you tell us what roles does the AU play in the peace process between Israel and Palestine?
Riyad al-Malki : First of all that we know that there are so many internal problems within Africa that Africa should really take care of. everybody knows what is happening in Somalia, everybody knows what is happening in Sudan, everybody knows the problems between Chad and Sudan, the south of Sudan what is happening with Eritrea not to mention other conflicts and problems the military coups that have taken place recently in few countries going back to democratic governance in many countries, the economic crisis that has affected very much Africa the poverty is another matter - there are so many issues that really concern Africa but also the same time we as Palestinians we have been coordinating always with the au about Palestine in addition to other issues in all international arenas when we meet. for example on the 27th there was a meeting in the UN security council about the situation of the Palestine and Israel in order for us to take advantage of this issue and take focus on the issue of Jerusalem for example we have really coordinated this matter with the arab group, with the non aligned group with the Islamic countries and with the African union these are a must when you coordinate all these you are coordinating with two thirds of the countries within the united nations so it is very important to have this kind of coordination we do the same in geneva and we do the same in many other continents. But what is important is that AU as everybody knows is representing 53 countries and these 53 countries are so close that they have a very important weight both politically and demographically. So whenever they put their weight into action the other regional groups take this into consideration so one should not underestimate the power and the influence the AU could really have and could use whenever it is necessary. so of course this is what we expect we expect that the AU keep using its own leverage to provide the type of support to Palestine and the type of pressure needed whenever it should be and it should influence the position of many other regional groups.

Even at the level of Arabs there is the Afro-Arab cooperation council and I myself attended the last one that took place in Libya it was two months ago and I attended that myself because we are pat of the executive committee. Palestine is part of executive committee and I went there because I felt the importance and the necessity for Palestine to contribute to furthering the relations between Africa and the Arab world and I am also aware that on the fourth of march there will be the next meeting at the foreign ministers level in Cairo where all African and Arab foreign ministers will meet and it will be a great opportunity for us to focus on our bilateral relations and the interests of both Africa and the Arab world. I think we have done in this regard and one can really tell when it comes to trade exchange we can do a lot, when it comes to Arab investment in African countries we should really do a lot and I think should be a priority at least form a Palestinian perspective we have declared the year 2010 as the year of Africa. And it means that our foreign policy has to be shifted to Africa and we have to focus on how to develop our relations with Africa giving Africa our top priority we should be do many visits to African countries at the level of the president, a the level of the prime minister at the level of foreign ministers and many other ministers and sign as many agreements as possible because this the way it should be. at the end of the day if one should really look at the bilateral ties that one really has it is here in Africa it is very important to always to look into that. During our meetings with so many African ministers I have really extended invitations to all of them to come and visit Palestine including the Ethiopian foreign minister again and all of them have accepted we will work out possible dates based on their schedule and ours and I think this is also another way to develop further the African Palestinian relationship and really to try to maximum the benefits for both sides.
SSI: How would you measure Palestinian Egyptian relations at this time?
Riyad al-Malki : It is really at its peak it is the best you know we have taken a decision a long time ago not to interfere in the internal affairs of any country in the world, to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of each other and at the end of the day we are seeking normal relations with all countries. When it comes to Egypt, it borders Palestine. For people from Gaza the way out is through Egypt. Egypt is the biggest sister to us, it is the biggest Arab country and their political position have been always in support of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian struggle so we maintain periodic consultations at all levels between both presidents: President Mubarak and president Mahmoud Abbas almost every month there is a meeting between the two to exchange views and other matters and so we consider the relations the best. We would like very much to maintain relations with the rest of the Arab world in the same manner because you know at the end of the day we look at every country, small and big Arab and non Arab alike that all of them are important form our point of view and we extend out hand for cooperation and friendship in the same manner too.   The Egyptians have worked closely for the reconciliation among the deferent Palestine factions under the instructions of the Arab league and they have been doing a lot of work in that regard. We appreciated their help without it we would not reach this level today where we are so close t achieve reconciliation and to end the division between the Palestinians. Thanks to the Egyptian intervention and commitment I think one should look at it from a positive perspective and appreciating very much the role of that Egypt has been doing for the Palestinian cause.