Sri Lanka has appointed its first-ever envoy to Palestine, with Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath naming M. Fauser to a posting equivalent to ambassador rank.
The appointment was made on Monday during a meeting between Herath and Fauser at the Foreign Ministry. NewsFirst reported that Fauser told the Minister Sri Lanka had always been a close friend of Palestine and pledged to serve in line with the policy and position of the Sri Lankan government.
Fauser previously served for an extended period as Secretary of the Palestine Solidarity Committee of Sri Lanka, a domestic civil-society body that has campaigned on Palestinian human-rights issues for decades. He was scheduled to depart Colombo on Monday night to take up his duties.
Sri Lanka has historically aligned with the Non-Aligned Movement’s pro-Palestine consensus, voting at the United Nations General Assembly in support of Palestinian statehood and against Israeli settlement activity. Until now, however, it has not maintained a dedicated diplomatic mission or named representative for the territories — a gap that has drawn periodic criticism from solidarity groups.
The appointment follows a series of foreign-policy moves on the West Asia file, including Foreign Minister Herath summoning the Iranian Ambassador over the IRIS Dena incident and a stepped-up Sri Lankan posture on Hormuz freedom-of-navigation. It also lands amid the deepening tourism shock from the West Asia conflict, with April arrivals down 24.8% year on year.
Source: NewsFirst.
