Sri Lankan Prime Minister visits West Bank and meets with Abbas

Tuesday March 25, 2008 15:39 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

Ratnasiri Wickremanayake the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka visited the West Bank on Tuesday.

President Abbas (left) welcoming the Sri Lankan Primer (Right) photo by WAFA News

The visit started in the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, where Wickremanayake met Palestinian Authority officials including the Governor of Bethlehem Salah Ta'mari and the Mayor of Bethlehem Victor Batarseh.

Wickremanayake made a short visit to the Church of the Nativity. During his stop in Bethlehem the visiting Prime Minister said that the Israeli illegal wall is "unnecessary" during a time when nations of the world are seeking openness to one another.

Later on Tuesday Wickremanayake headed to the central West Bank city of Ramallah were he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister of the caretaker government Salam Fayyad as well as Palestinian businessmen.

The Palestinian ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Anwar Al Agha was accompanying the Sri Lankan official during the visit.

west bank | diplomacy | news report ghassanb at imemc dot org