United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and stressed again that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the only path to peace, the U.N. reported Tuesday.
Guterres' strong backing for an independent Palestinian state came ahead of the release of a long-awaited U.S. plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace and the Israeli Knesset election on April 9.
U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric says Guterres also congratulated Abbas during Monday's meeting on the election of the Palestinians to preside over the Group of 77, a bloc of 134 mainly developing nations and China that promotes their collective interests at the United Nations. Abbas will take over the chairmanship from Egypt on Tuesday.
As Abbas and his entourage left U.N. headquarters, P.A. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told reporters: "It was a good meeting."
