Belgium will now allow its diplomats to accept official invitations from the Palestine Liberation Organization.
A Belgian Foreign Ministry official told reporters Wednesday that the move is designed “to ease contacts with the PLO and encourage moderation and readiness for dialogue.”
But the official said it was not to be interpreted as recognition of the Palestinian state declared by representatives of the Palestine National Council at their meeting in Algiers last November.
Nor is the PLO’s diplomatic status in Belgium being changed, the spokesman stressed. The PLO has only an information bureau in Brussels.
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