By Xinhua,
Prague : Palestinian National Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will visit the Czech Republic for the first time in history to discuss the situation in the Middle East, the Government Office said on Tuesday.
Fayyad will meet his Czech counterpart Mirek Topolanek and Czech Senate Chairman Premysl Sobotka, the Czech news agency CTK said.
According to the Czech Foreign Ministry, Fayyad’s visit reflects the Czech interest in the peacekeeping process in the Middle East.
The Czech Government Office said in March that the Czech Republic should play a more active role in the solution to the Middle East conflict and it would like to use its position of a country respected by both sides in the conflict.
Czech Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra recently said that Prague supports a solution that reckons with the establishment of two countries, Palestine and Israel.
The situation in this region will be among the topics of the Czech Republic’s EU presidency in the first half of 2009, CTK said.
The Government Office recalled that the Czech Republic is involved in the projects of electrification on the West Bank of the River Jordan and training the Palestinian police. Czechs may also help with irrigation and the training of Palestinian judges.
The Czech Republic opened its liaison office in Ramallah on the West Bank in 2000 as the first country of the former Soviet bloc.
The Middle East area and efforts for a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rank among long-term priorities of Czech foreign policy, CTK said.
Late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat visited former Czechoslovakia 10 times, first in 1975, under the previous communist regime, and the last time in April 1990 when he was received by then Czechoslovak president Vaclav Havel.