Kazakhstan - WAFA
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, affirmed his countries support of the Palestinian bid to gain a non-member state status at the United Nations, Wednesday said a statement by Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During a meeting with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki on the sideline of the meeting of foreign affairs ministers of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), Nazarbayev affirmed Kazakhstan’s support of the Palestinian bid and inquired about the current situation in the region and how it affects the Palestinian issue. Kazakhstan’s Foreign Affairs Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov and al-Malki agreed to form a joint council to enable businessmen from both countries to contribute in the implementation of joint projects in both countries. They also discussed the mechanism of legally reviewing all signed agreements in order to activate them and determine the fields where new agreements can be formulated, as well as the bilateral relations between the two countries. Al-Malki stressed the deterioration in the peace process and its implications on the ground; settlements, the apartheid wall, confiscation, arrests and the Judiazation policy, in addition to the Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman’s repeated racist statements against the Palestinian leadership. He stressed that these Israeli measures and policies target the Palestinian people and leadership and prevent the possibility of a two-state solution; the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.