Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian President's Special Representative for the Middle East and Africa and Deputy Foreign Minister, on Monday, August 8 in a telephone conversation with Ismail Haniyeh, Chairman of the Politburo of the HAMAS Movement, confirmed Moscow's position in favor of the immediate restoration of the ceasefire regime around Gaza.
"The position in favor of the immediate restoration of the cease-fire regime around Gaza was reiterated from the Russian side, and the relevant mediation efforts were welcomed. At the same time, it was stressed that the creation of an independent State of Palestine within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living in peace and security with Israel is called for as a reliable guarantee against relapses of the Palestinian-Israeli power confrontation," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
According to the diplomatic office, Haniyeh informed Bogdanov about the development of the armed confrontation around Gaza between Israel and the Islamic Jihad group, provoked by the arrest of one of its leaders in the West Bank. "In the past three days, more than 40 people, including children, were killed and more than 300 wounded as a result of Israeli shelling of densely populated neighborhoods in Gaza. In parallel, there were provocations by Israeli radicals around Muslim holy sites in East Jerusalem," it noted.
The HAMAS leader valued the active mediation efforts of Egypt as well as Qatar, which eventually made it possible to reach a ceasefire agreement, the foreign ministry added.
On August 5, the Israeli army announced the beginning of the Operation Breaking Dawn against the Islamic Jihad in Gaza. On August 7 the Israeli authorities confirmed that with the mediation of Egypt it was possible to reach an agreement which would allow to start a cease-fire regime in the Gaza Strip from 23:30 (Moscow time) of the same day. Israel reserved the right to use force if the agreement was violated.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Akishin Vyacheslav/Creative Commons 2.0
Based on materials from TASS