{"id":24215,"date":"2018-12-04T04:22:24","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T04:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=24215"},"modified":"2018-12-04T04:22:24","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T04:22:24","slug":"vatican-renews-call-for-2-state-solution-to-mideast-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=24215","title":{"rendered":"Vatican renews call for 2-state solution to Mideast conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1415076\/middle-east\" readability=\"48\">\n<p>\nVATICAN CITY: The Vatican expressed concern over the status of Jerusalem on Monday as Pope Francis and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held their first meeting since the United States stirred international anxiety by moving its embassy there.<br \/>The two embraced and kissed on the cheek as the pontiff welcomed Abbas to a library in the Vatican\u2019s Apostolic Palace for a private, 20-minute meeting.<br \/>\u201cParticular attention was reserved for the status of Jerusalem, underlining the importance of recognizing and preserving its identity and the universal value of the holy City for the three Abrahamic religions,\u201d a Vatican statement said, referring to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.<br \/>US President Donald Trump outraged the Arab world and the international community last year when he reversed decades of policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital and put Washington\u2019s embassy there. It was opened in May.<br \/>Palestinians, with broad international backing, want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state, while Israel views the whole city its \u201cunited and eternal\u201d capital.<br \/>The Vatican expressed concern last year at Trump\u2019s move, saying the city\u2019s \u201cstatus quo\u201d should be respected. Francis has called for all to honor UN resolutions on the city.<br \/>The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said Abbas briefed the pope on \u201cthe implications of the US decision.\u201d<br \/>As Abbas was leaving the library, he told the pope: \u201cWe are counting on you.\u201d It was not clear what he was referring to.<br \/>The Vatican backs a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with both sides agreeing on the status of Jerusalem as part of the peace process.<br \/>The statement said Abbas and the pope also discussed efforts to reactivate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and hoped for \u201ca renewed commitment on the part of the international community to meet the legitimate aspirations of both peoples.\u201d<br \/>They also urged an end to \u201cextremism and fundamentalism\u201d in the Middle East, and called for reconciliation among Palestinian factions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VATICAN CITY: The Vatican expressed concern over the status of Jerusalem on Monday as Pope Francis and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held their first meeting since the United States stirred international anxiety by moving its embassy there.The two embraced and kissed on the cheek as the pontiff welcomed Abbas to a library in the Vatican\u2019s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":24216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}