Palestine, Bulgaria Call for Enhancing Bilateral Cooperation in All Fields

President Mahmoud Abbas and his Bulgarian guest, President Rumen Radev, called on Thursday for enhancing bilateral relations and cooperation in all fields, particularly education.

Radev arrived in Ramallah on Thursday on an official one day visit, his first to Palestine since taking office in 2017, during which he held talks with President Abbas.

The Bulgarian president said he discussed with Abbas strengthening bilateral relations, particularly since more than 5000 Palestinians have studied and graduated from Bulgarian universities.

He said in statements to the press following the meeting with Abbas at the presidential headquarter in Ramallah that the two countries should work on developing relations in all fields, including education, agriculture and economy.

President Abbas also praised Bulgaria for its support of the Palestinian cause and said that Palestine and Bulgaria have "warm and deep" ties.

He said Bulgaria is the current chair of the European Union (EU), expressing gratitude to Europe for its support for Palestinian state building and peace efforts.

Abbas reiterated his call for holding an international peace conference by the middle of this year to find a peaceful solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through a multilateral mechanism.

He stressed, however, that any solution should be based on United Nations resolutions that would lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital open to the three monotheistic religions.

Speaking on the situation in Gaza, President Abbas said Hamas has to either give up all control over the Gaza Strip and hand over power to the conciliation government or become responsible for the failure of the...