Abbas opens Vatican mission

Vatican City (AFP) January 14, 2017 – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas held a private meeting with Pope Francis before heading to inaugurate the diplomatic mission, located in a building facing the Vatican that also houses the embassies of Peru and Burkina Faso.
Abbas met with Pope Francis for 20 minutes ahead of the embassy opening.
Among the gifts exchanged, Abbas offered the pontiff a stone from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, according to Greg Burke, spokesman for the Holy See.
A Vatican statement regarding Israel and the Palestinians added: “Hope was expressed that direct negotiations between the parties may be resumed to bring an end to the violence that causes unacceptable suffering to civilian populations, and to find a just and lasting solution.”
The private audience was the third meeting between Francis and Abbas. The pontiff visited Israel and the Occupied Territories in 2014 and Abbas made a trip to the Vatican the following year for the canonization of two Palestinian nuns.
Relations between the Vatican and the Palestinian Authority turned a new page in 2015 with the signing of an agreement to create a Palestinian embassy at the Vatican.
The agreement — two years after the Vatican recognized Palestine as a state — provoked the ire of Israel, which was also angered when Francis called Abbas “an angel of peace” during their meeting in May 2015.