Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud AbbasReuters

Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas met on Sunday with a Japanese parliamentary delegation, headed by Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs at Japan’s House of Representatives Wakamiya Kenji, in Ramallah.

According to the PA’s official Wafa news agency, Abbas stressed the depth of relations between “Palestine” and Japan and the keenness of the “State of Palestine” to strengthen them for the benefit of the two friendly peoples, praising the continuous political and economic support of Japan to the Palestinian people.

For his part, according to Wafa, Kenji reiterated Japan’s commitment to the two-state solution and the right of the Palestinian people to establish their state alongside the state of Israel.

He stressed Japan’s commitment to continue their economic support to build the Palestinian institutions as well as to support the corridor of peace and prosperity and the Jericho industrial zone.

Japan has in the past expressed willingness to mediate in the peace talks between Israel and the PA. In 2017, Japan invited Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to a four-way meeting in Tokyo with Abbas and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, in an effort to restart peace efforts.

Instead of sitting down for direct talks with Israel, Abbas has continuously imposed preconditions on such talks.