Russia is ready to help consolidate and develop the positive trend in the Palestinian-Israeli settlement, including by organizing a meeting in Moscow. This was stated on Monday by the Special Representative of the Russian President for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov to the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram.
"For our part, we express our readiness to help consolidate and develop the emerging positive trend, including by organizing a regular meeting of the main Palestinian organizations in Moscow, when appropriate sanitary and epidemiological conditions allow," the senior diplomat said.
According to Bogdanov, to achieve a comprehensive peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians on the basis of generally recognized international legal basis of Middle East settlement (MES) and resolution of all final status issues must prompt the resumption of direct negotiations between the parties under UN auspices. "At the same time, an important prerequisite for launching a full - fledged peace process is to overcome the inter-Palestinian split, which we constantly emphasize in our contacts, primarily with representatives of the leadership of political movements and organizations in Palestine," he said.
In this regard, the Deputy Minister added that Moscow welcomes the timely steps of the movement for the Liberation of Palestine (Fatah) and the Islamic resistance movement (Hamas) on the way to restoring national unity, which were announced on July 2 during a joint press conference in video format between the Executive Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee, Jibril Rajoub, and the Deputy Chairman of the Hamas Politburo, Saleh al-Aruri.
Inter-Palestinian split
The 2006 elections to the Palestinian legislative Council, which were won by Hamas supporters, marked the beginning of an inter-Palestinian split. In 2007, this led to the movement's representatives seizing power in the Gaza strip after an armed coup. Since then, Palestine has been divided into two parts - the Hamas-controlled enclave and the West Bank, led by the Fatah movement and Mahmoud Abbas.
In the spring of 2014, as part of the reconciliation process between Fatah and Hamas, a government of national accord led by Rami Hamdallah was sworn in, whose main task was to prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories. However, due to new disagreements between the two movements, it was never able to start working in full and subsequently disbanded. The issue of inter-Palestinian reconciliation is still unresolved.
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Based on materials from TASS