Palestine denies report of reinstating envoy who shared stage with Saeed

The Palestine Embassy in New Delhi on Sunday discarded the reports of its Ambassador to Pakistan Walid Abu Ali being reinstated.

"We don't know from where you got this information about Palestine Ambassador to Pakistan being reinstated. As per our knowledge, he is very much in Palestine as of now", the Palestine Embassy in New Delhi told ANI.

In addition, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry also denied this information, saying, "Our ambassador in Pakistan is in Palestine and our position was declared by our official statement which we have published last week".

Earlier in the day, Pakistani media reported that Palestine has reinstated its ambassador to Pakistan Walid Abu Ali, who was recently recalled for attending a rally organised by the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), where he shared a stage with 26/11 attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

 

Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) chairman Maulana Tahir Ashrafi was quoted as saying that Walid Abu Ali would return to Pakistan on Wednesday to resume his duty.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the country's Chief Justice were reportedly requested by Ashrafi to reinstate Walid Abu Ali, in the backdrop of the ambassador's services rendered to Pakistan.

Earlier in December, Palestine had decided to call back Walid Abu Ali after he shared the stage with the United Nations-designated terrorist and the 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed during an event in Rawalpindi and branded the incident as "deeply regrettable".

The move unfolded as India stated that the Palestinian envoy's association with Saeed was "unacceptable".

After India's objection, Palestinian Ambassador to India Adnan Abu Al Haija told ANI: "We are supporting India in its fight against terrorism and because of that my government decided to directly call our Ambassador to go back home and not to be a Palestine ambassador to Pakistan anymore".

He also assured India and Palestine would deal with the matter appropriately.

Pakistan had defended Walid Abu Ali after he was recalled from his post by saying that the Ambassador has participated in many of the meetings held in the country and that the public meeting in question was "yet another demonstration of the Pakistani strong sentiments in support of the Palestinian cause".