President Mahmoud Abbas meeting in Ramallah with a delegation of religious leaders. (WAFA Images / Thayer Ghanayem)

RAMALLAH, Wednesday, January 23, 2019 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas received on Wednesday a delegation of Muslim, Christian, Palestinian Jews, and Samaritan clerics at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah. The clerics congratulated the President on Palestine‘s winning of a UNGA vote making it head of the Group of 77 and China for 2019.

The clerics hailed the UNGA vote in favor of Palestine which they said was the latest in a series of diplomatic achievements in favor of the State of Palestine in the international arena, the first one of which was the granting by the UN General Assembly of Palestine the status of an observer member of the UNGA in late 2012.

Palestine has also become a member of the UNESCO and the International Criminal Court, as well as acceded to several international organizations and treaties.

On September 2018, the Group of 77 and China meeting in New York unanimously named President Mahmoud Abbas as chairman, replacing Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Under the new status, the State of Palestine would negotiate with the other partners and member states of the organization on all the developmental, humanitarian and legal issues on the agenda of the United Nations 2019.

In addition, the State of Palestine will continue to work for ensuring the implementation of the 17 internationally agreed development goals, first and foremost the fight against poverty in all its dimensions as hundreds of millions of people around the world are still living below the poverty line in order to achieve sustainable development.

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