Abbas sends congratulations to Rouhani

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki met with Iran’s newly appointed vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, in Tehran on Monday. Maliki transmitted PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s written message congratulating Iranian President Hasan Rouhani for his inauguration.

Maliki was in Iran attending Rouhani’s swearing-in ceremony on Sunday.

Rouhani won a landslide victory in Iran’s June 14 presidential election. He replaced Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and has been described by some observers as more moderate than his predecessor. He was believed to have garnered the votes of Iran’s more reform-minded voters, even though he is a veteran of the ruling clerical establishment and his candidacy was authorized by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to official Palestinian news agency Wafa, Maliki expressed his desire to further develop bilateral relations between the two sides. Conversation also turned to alleged Israeli violations, including arson attacks on mosques and settlement expansion.

Jahangiri told Maliki that the Palestinian issue has been of paramount importance for the Islamic Republic since its founding in 1979, and urged  the Palestinian factions — Abbas’s Fatah and the Islamic extremist Hamas — to work out their differences.

The Iranian vice president also expressed his support for full Palestinian membership in the United Nations, according to the official IRNA news agency. He said that the Palestinians’ ascension to the world body would help restore their rights.

The UN General Assembly voted to upgrade the Palestinians to that of a nonmember observer state on November 29, 2012.