Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, President of the Parliamentary Assembly, on 18 October welcomed the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas as “good news”.

"It is a sign, at a difficult time for the peace process, that sustained negotiations are possible and more effective than the continuation of a stalemate between Palestinians and Israelis," he said.

"The release of soldier Gilad Shalit was one of the key issues the Assembly said it would follow when it granted, the Palestinian National Council ‘Partner for democracy’ status on 4 October 2011. I am happy that our new partnership, put in place thanks to the work of our PACE rapporteur on this topic, Tiny Kox (Netherlands, UEL), is already bearing fruit. (more...)