Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas met anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela on Saturday as he wound up a three-day state visit to South Africa and headed home to face factional violence in Gaza.
During a brief courtesy visit to Mandela’s Johannesburg home, Abbas paid tribute to the African National Congress veteran as the ”father of all liberation movements”.
He said South Africa, which enjoys good relations with the Palestinians, Israel and the United States, could play ”a productive role in the peace process”.
Mandela looked relaxed as he joked with his visitor in front of photographers.
Abbas met President Thabo Mbeki on Friday and a delivered a speech to Parliament on Friday.
In a toast at a dinner in honour of Abbas late Friday, Mbeki said South Africans feel solidarity with the Palestinian people.
”This visit is very special to all of us because for many decades both our peoples have occupied the same trenches and shared similar experiences and anxieties in our quest for freedom and independence,” Mbeki said, according to text of his speech released on Saturday.
Mbeki said that South Africa’s peaceful dismantling of apartheid and transition to multiparty democracy should serve as an example in the Middle East.
”We are convinced that there is no other road to peace between Palestine and Israel except the road of negotiations to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution,” he said.
With a new government led by the Islamic militant group Hamas, this prospect now seems remote.
Factional fighting has erupted in Gaza between Hamas supporters and followers of Abbas’s Fatah movement following the death of a top militant with ties to Hamas in a car bomb blamed on Fatah loyalists. Abbas made no comment about the latest violence.
Abbas’s long-ruling Fatah party was defeated in January elections by the Islamic militant Hamas movement, which formed a Cabinet this week. Abbas, a moderate, still wields effective control over foreign policy.
South Africa has also invited Hamas leaders to visit, but no date has been set. — Sapa-AP