Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is arriving in Dublin for a short visit today.
President Abbas will visit President Michael D Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin, before meetings with the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Simon Coveney.
Minister Coveney invited President Abbas to Ireland when they met in the West Bank earlier this year.
Had long and good meeting with @president_abbas this evening. Ireland continues to support Palestinian Govt with financial aid and partnerships but we are also working to promote a politically negotiated peace settlement between Israelis + Palestinians based on a 2 state solution pic.twitter.com/UO1zyM3zxm
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) January 10, 2018
Mr Abbas met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris yesterday.
The Irish stopover comes as the Palestinian leader travels to the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York.
According to reports, Abbas is set to tell the UN to either save the two-state solution for peace in the Middle East or 'bury it'.
Tension between the US and Palestine have increased over the last year, in the wake of the controversial decision by the Trump administration to move the Israeli embassy to Jerusalem.
The US was widely condemned for its 'dangerous' recent decision to cut funding to the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.
