Asia-Africa conference members continuously support Palestine

Members of the Asia-Africa Conference are continuously gathering support for Palestine`s bid to become a full member of the United Nations (UN), Indonesian envoy said.

"Political support to acknowledge Palestine as a country has been gained," Foreign Affairs Ministry`s Director General for Information and Public Diplomacy, AM Fachir, said here on Wednesday.

He said other effort to help Palestine is by providing human resource training to the Palestinians. 400 Palestinians have obtained training assistance till now from the members of the Asia Africa Conference.

Though Palestine has yet to receive full membership from the UN, one of the UN`s agencies, UNESCO, had voted to accept Palestine as a full member in 2011. Palestine`s bid, which requires the approval of two-thirds of the UNESCO members, was passed with 107 votes in favor, 14 against, and 52 abstentions. It was the first such vote by a UN agency.

Palestinian Ambassador to Indonesia, Fariz Mehdawi, in a seminar on International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People held last November in Jakarta, said, "We only hope to become a normal country like any other country in the world, we don`t want to cause any problem or burden to other countries."

Mehdawi added that Palestine has been trying to free itself from the shackles of Israeli occupation for the last two generations.

Source: ANTARA