JCP Shii and Ichida meet with Arab ambassadors

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

JCP Shii and Ichida meet with Arab ambassadors

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo and Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on October 29 met with ambassadors of Arab countries to Japan at the JCP head office.

The ambassadors who visited the JCP office were Walid Mahmoud Abdelnasser of Egypt, Khalid Al-Musliahi of Oman, Waleed Siam of Palestine, and Demiye Haddad of Jordan.

The Arab ambassadors explained about the peace talks between Palestine and Israel and efforts for a nuclear-free Middle East, and expressed hope for Japan's aid to Arab countries for their economic development and improved environmental measures.

Shii said that the JCP wants to contribute to developing friendly relations between Japan and Arab countries. For a just solution to the Palestine problem, the JCP chair stressed the need for Israel to withdraw from occupied lands and recognize the Palestinian people's right to self-determination including the building of their state, as well as the need for both Israel and Palestine to recognize each other’s right to exist in order to achieve conditions needed for peaceful co-existence. He pointed out that the biggest obstruction to meaningful peace talks is the Israeli settlement expansion.

Shii also said that an important step toward a world without nuclear weapons was taken when the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in May agreed to convene a conference in 2012 on the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.

The ambassadors said that poverty and the Palestine problem are used as justification for extremists' resort to terrorism. Shii replied that it is imperative to eradicate these breeding grounds for terrorism.

- Akahata, October 30, 2010