Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas thanked Brazil on December 31, 2010 for recognising his nation’s statehood with the first embassy in the Americas and said other countries were following suit. Brazil became the first of several South American countries in recent weeks to recognise a Palestine state along pre-1967 borders. Since then Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Ecuador have done the same. Chile, Mexico, Peru and Nicaragua are reported to be considering recognition. Israel however said the moves were “seriously harmful” to the Middle East peace process and Washington called them “premature.”
“We thank Brazil for its support in the construction of a Palestine state. This favor we will never forget,” said Abbas after laying the cornerstone in Brasilia for his nation’s first embassy in the Western Hemisphere. “We see several countries following the example of Brazil in recognising the Palestinian state,” Abbas said before meeting with outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Palestinian authorities are hoping for a diplomatic domino effect to give international validity to their claim for a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel captured along with East Jerusalem in a 1967 war. Abbas said Friday that a recent wave of nations recognizing a Palestinian state based upon 1967 borders is pressuring Israel and the US to return to negotiations and reach a peace deal.