Abbas raises PA flag at Beirut embassy dedication

Lebanese PM attends ceremony; PA president says following Palestinian statehood, Palestinians in Lebanon will receive Palestinian passports.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, OREN KESSLER
PA President Abbas and Lebanese PM Mikati in Beirut 311 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/ Sharif Karim)
PA President Abbas and Lebanese PM Mikati in Beirut 311 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS/ Sharif Karim)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas raised the PLO flag at a ceremony marking the upgrade of a PA delegation in Beirut to the status of embassy on Wednesday.
Attending the event were Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat.
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Abbas is in Beirut as part of a visit aimed at pushing for Lebanese support for the Palestinian statehood bid next month. Lebanon, a temporary member of the United Nations Security Council, assumes the Security Council presidency in September.
On Tuesday, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said Beirut intends to support the PA's statehood bid when Lebanon takes the rotating UN Security Council leadership next month.
Also on Tuesday, Abbas said that Palestinians living in Lebanon will receive Palestinian passports alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Meeting with Suleiman in the Lebanese coastal city of Baabda, Abbas said he opposes the re-settlement of Palestinian refugees and their descendants - in his words, "temporary guests" - in their countries of habitation.
“We do not want [the Palestinians’s] nationalization and we do not seek it," Abbas said, according to Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper, adding, "When the Palestinian state is established, Palestinians will have their passport and nationality.”