The Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington has hoisted its national flag for the first time, saying it symbolized its struggle for independence.
The US State Department said the flag ceremony was approved several months ago and does not change the status of the Palestinian mission in Washington.
Maen Rashid Areikat, the envoy to the headquarters of the General Delegation of the Palestine Liberation Organization to the United States (PLO), raised the flag at a ceremony watched by journalists and others, the mission said.
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The statement said delegates from the State Department and Arab League Ambassador Hussein Hasouneh attended the ceremony.
"This flag symbolizes the struggle of the Palestinian people for independence," Areikat was quoted by his mission as saying.
The flag "also is a clear message that the Palestinian people and the PLO are central players in the equation of the Middle East without whom, there will be no peace, security and stability in the region," he said.
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said: "The granting permission to raise the flag does not change their fundamental status."
The move comes after direct US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians ground to a halt late last year over Israel's refusal to renew a partial freeze on Jewish settlements on Palestinian land.
