Akufo-Addo to Israeli ambassador: Ghana supports “two-state solution” in Middle East

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said Ghana supports the proposed two-state solution to the political challenges in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine.

“We are so very committed here in Ghana to the two-state solution to the problems in the Middle East which will see Israel living within universally acknowledged borders side by side with the Palestinian state that is also well defined,” Akufo-Addo said when the outgoing Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, Shani Cooper-Zubida, paid a farewell call on him at the Jubilee House on Monday (28 June 2021) after three years of her diplomatic tour in Ghana.

“We believe it has been a feature of Ghanaian policy for sometime, that is the two-state solution is the solution that will hopefully bring an end to this long protracted conflict in the Middle East which has affected so many lives and so many relationships across the world.”

Israeli politics

President Akufo-Addo said he is happy to see that the State of Israel has been able to resolve the two-year-old political stalemate as a result of the proportional representation form of governance that is practiced in Israel. He added that Ghana values its relations with Israel and hopefully, same will be strengthened going forward.

“We value the diplomatic relations that we have with Israel and bonds of friendship that we have between us. I am happy that the internal protracted political stalemate that has been in Israel for some-time appears now to have finally been broken,” he said.

Outgoing Israeli envoy

Ambassador Shani Cooper-Zubida, in her farewell remarks noted that after three years in Ghana, she is proud of the fact that Ghana and Israel have been able to deepen their relations in three sectors; agriculture, innovation and health.

“We have done it through business and through public diplomacy and I am happy to report that the number of Israel companies interested in doing business with Ghana and in Ghana has gone up tremendously and the number of beneficiaries of the Israel development agency has also gone up including specific programmes that were built by the agency for Ghana in Agriculture and in Health,” she said.

Equatorial Guinea’s ambassador

Also at the Office of the President to bid farewell was Jesus Mba Bela Abaha, outgoing Equatorial Guinea’s ambassador to Ghana. In his remarks, he indicated that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, what was supposed to be the commencement of deliberations between a joint Ghana-Equatorial Guinea joint permanent mission for cooperation in Equatorial Guinea, could not materialise.

He was hopeful that his successor would ensure that happens.

Ghana/Equatorial Guinea relations

President Akufo-Addo observed that the relationship between Ghana and Equatorial Guinea is evidenced in the story of 1878, when Tetteh Quarshie, a Ghanaian blacksmith, brought cocoa beans to Ghana from Fernando Po Islands (now called Isla de Bioko).

This single act, the President said is responsible for Ghana’s cocoa sector that the country prides itself in. He wished the Equatorial Guinea envoy great success in his new challenge back home.

Wilberforce Asare

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