Pope Francis is pictured with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during an audience at the Vatican Nov 4. Photo: CNS 
The Pope met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Vatican last week, where the Secretariat of State stressed the need to restart direct dialogue to achieve a two-state solution with Israel, while also recognising the need for peaceful coexistence among the various faiths.
Addressing the meeting between the two leaders, a Vatican statement announced that: “With regard to the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, it was stressed that it is absolutely necessary to reactivate direct dialogue in order to achieve a two-state solution, also with the help of more vigorous effort on the part of the international community.”
According to the Vatican, the secretariat of state reiterated that Jerusalem must be recognised as “a place of encounter and not of conflict”, and that its status as “a Holy City for all three Abrahamic religions” must be preserved.
“Finally, attention turned to the urgency of working for peace, avoiding the use of weapons, and combating all forms of extremism and fundamentalism,” the Vatican statement said.
Wafa, the news agency of the Palestinian National Authority, reported that President Abbas briefed the Pope on “the importance of jointly confronting the attempts to seize Palestinian property and church property, including through fraudulent sales, particularly in the Old City of Jerusalem”.
The meeting came a week after Israel approved about 3,000 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank.
According to Vatican News, the meeting was the Pope’s sixth encounter with President Abbas at the Vatican. The two met for the first time at a prayer for peace in the Vatican Gardens together with then Israeli President Shimon Peres.
President Abbas, 85, has been president of the Palestinian National Authority since 2005 and the chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) since 2004. He previously served as the first prime minister of the Palestinian Authority in 2003.
The Holy See has long supported a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. The Holy See made official its recognition of the State of Palestine with an agreement signed in 2015.
