President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed his heartfelt condolences to the people of Palestine over the death of Mr Saeb Erekat, who he described as a “towering statesman and peace negotiator”.
The president, in a condolence message released by his spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja on Tuesday, described the deceased as “the veteran Palestinian peace negotiator and one of the most high-profile figures in Palestinian leadership since the early 1990s.’’
Erekat, a former Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), was also a lawmaker from Jericho in the occupied West Bank and a senior adviser to the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, and his predecessor, Yasser Arafat.
Buhari, who condoled with the family and friends of the deceased, noted in his tribute that Erekat was one the radical Palestinian leaders “whose wise counsel” led to the recognition of the legitimacy of the state of Israel.
He said that the recognition was a pathway to a two-state solution, by which an independent Palestine State would be created to exist side-by-side with Israel.
Buhari expressed regrets that Erekat did not live long enough to witness an independent State of Palestine, a realistic aspiration, which, according to him, “is realisable when there is full international support and cooperation.’’
