Its secretary-general Jibril Rajoub saw it as a step towards Malaysia opening its embassy in a free Palestine in the future.

“We also hope to see the Malaysian flag in Al Quds, the capital of independent Palestine. We thank the Malaysian government for their brave decision,” he said.

He said the party encouraged all Muslim countries who were not accredited to Palestine to follow Malaysia’s move.

Jibril, who is also the chairman of the Palestinian Scout Association, was in Kuala Lumpur on a two-day official visit as guest of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement and the Scouts Association of Malaysia.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad announced the opening of a Malaysian embassy in Jordan accredited to Palestine when addressing leaders and representatives from 120 member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) at the 18th NAM summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, yesterday.

Palestine has an embassy in Kuala Lumpur while the Malaysian ambassador to Egypt is accredited to Palestine.

Fatah is led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Cultural Organisation Malaysia (PCOM) chairman Muslim Imran said the opening of an embassy in Jordan accredited to Palestine will consolidate and elevate Kuala Lumpur’s strong support for the Palestinian struggle to the next level.

He said the move came at the right time when Palestinians were under pressure to accept what was dubbed as the deal of the century – a peace plan proposal by the United States to solve the Palestine-Israel conflict.

“Palestinians have been able so far to stand up to this pressure and to reject any unfair settlement of our struggle. Therefore, Malaysia’s move to establish the embassy will give a boost to their morale for independence,” he told Bernama.

PCOM, an independent non-governmental organisation based here, was established in 2011 to spread awareness about the Palestinian cause.