"Congratulations to Indians for having great man as PM": Palestine Envoy

New Delhi [India], June 9 : Palestinian Ambassador to India Abdullah Abu Shawesh extended greetings to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday on being India's longest-serving elected Prime Minister.
Shawesh, in a conversation with ANI, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken very significant steps that moved India to the global stage.
"When it came to the 12 years of His Excellency to be the longest Prime Minister of India, I would like first and foremost, of course, to congratulate him at a personal level and, of course, the Indian people for having this very great man as a Prime Minister to India. I'm pretty sure that during the last 12 years, His Excellency the Prime Minister Narendra Modi did accomplish a lot of economic and political and very significant steps that moved India or put India on the global stage as and it is in the situation that it is fit to be," he said.
He noted that India-Palestine relations have been very deep in history.
"Indeed, when we talk about the relationship between India and Palestine, we did not label it to one person, such as His Excellency the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The relation between Palestine and India at large is very deep in history. Hundreds of years ago, an Indian schoolman and a religious man came to Jerusalem and started a new place or built a new place in the holy place of Jerusalem, so that the hospices, Indian hospices, are still there in Jerusalem. Also, the relation between India and Jerusalem, India and Palestine, was extended many years ago," he said.
The ambassador further appreciated India's stance when it voted against the partition plan of Palestine.
"We highly appreciate it and will continue to remember them. The Prime Minister at that time (Jawaharlal Nehru), the great leader, Mahatma Gandhi, when his stance regarding the partition plan of Palestine," he said.
Shawesh said that the war in the Middle East is a bad development, and that the war in itself should come to an end, not the ceasefire itself.
"We can't talk about it. We cannot label any war as a development. It's a devastating development. The war, whether it is the war that was launched by Israel and America against Iran, is a very devastating development. Unfortunately, two days ago, we watched for approximately a few hours as the ceasefire was broken. I hope that the situation or the ceasefire comes to an end by signing and by declaring the end of the war itself, not only the ceasefire itself," he said.
Shawesh further noted that India endured suffering owing to the war in the Middle East.
"We as human beings watch the economic impact in our pockets here in India. People of India are suffering and enduring a lot due to the situation in the Middle East, due to the closure of the Strait, due to the war between the US-Israel, and Iran," he said.
"The whole entire global economy suffered a lot, and I hope that this suffering will end very soon because we as human being we need peace, we need calm, we need to get back to our regular and normal life," he added.
Shawesh said that any change in the price of oil has ripple effects all over the world.
The envoy said that Palestinians follow several announcements by US President Donald Trump, including his recent call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He further said the US sees Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as someone who dragged them into a war they were not interested in being in.
"And you know that anyone watching what happened in the political discourse in America knows that Netanyahu himself has become someone, according to the Americans themselves, who got them involved in a war that the Americans have no interest in. Netanyahu was the one who caused all the problems, all the economical problem to the American at large," he said.
Shawesh said that the conversation between Trump and Netanyahu is a testament to the fact that Trump has had the realization of being dragged into the war.
"And I think Trump himself, especially after the phone call between him and Netanyahu, and we already know what happened in this phone call and how much he threatened Netanyahu, the fugitive from Justice...Benjamin Netanyahu, and how much he told him that he's the one who saved his life. I will not go to the same exact wording that appears in the newspaper. So that I think President Trump, to some extent, you can see that he might finally woke up to know that Netanyahu was the one who put him in this not good situation with Iran," he said.
Shawesh added that India can play a role in the global arena, being a huge democracy.
"India can play not only in the Middle East and South Asia but in the global arena itself because India is a very big or the largest democratic country. India's 1.4 billion human beings. India is the third or the fourth largest economy now worldwide, India is India," he said.
Shawesh said that India has a liability of keeping peace not only in the region, but in the world.
"India, this big country, has a lot of liability to keep the peace not only in the Middle East but also around the world," he said.
He said that India carries weight in the political arena in multilateral fora.
"India can play a crucial role in saving the peace and bringing the peace back to not only the Middle East but also between Israel and America from one side and Iran from the other side because India has a heavy political weight, and I personally exercise this weight, and I know this according to my experience and international and multilateral arena a long time ago," he said.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday highlighted what it described as a "remarkable transformation" in India's foreign policy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership as he completed 12 years in office, saying the country's global standing and international influence have significantly expanded during the period.