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| Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (Image: The Independent) |
Independent - ATHENS: The Greek parliament has voted unanimously in favour of recognising the
state of Palestine during a visit from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The government
of Alexis Tsipras had previously been urged by the parliamentary Foreign
Affairs and Defence Committee to make the move, removing references to
"the Palestinian Authority".
Parliament voted
on the motion on Tuesday following an address by President Abbas, who held
talks with Mr Tsipras on Monday night.
After those
talks, Mr Abbas said his national authority had proposed changing the name it
refers to on its passports to State of Palestine, saying this will happen in a
year at most.
Despite its
long-held position of support for the Palestinian people, Mr Tsipras's
left-wing government is also working on improving relations with Israel. The
Prime Minister visited that country last month, meeting Benjamin Netanyahu,
before talks with Abbas in Ramallah, West Bank.
The flag of
Palestine was raised at the UN headquarters in New York for the first time on
30 September, as a symbolic gesture.
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