The leadership of Hamas informed the Russian Federation of its readiness to participate in the meeting of the main Palestinian parties and movements when it is organized in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Trud newspaper.
The Russian Foreign Minister noted that the most important prerequisite for the resumption of direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations was the restoration of Palestinian unity on the political platform of the Palestine Liberation Organization. "In this regard, we welcomed the timely steps taken by Fatah and Hamas towards overcoming the long-standing split, which were announced on July 2 during a joint press conference in the video format of authorized representatives of Fatah and Hamas," he recalled.
"For our part, we will continue to work with the Palestinians in order to consolidate and develop this encouraging trend. We expect to hold a regular meeting of representatives of the main Palestinian parties and movements in Moscow as soon as the sanitary and epidemiological situation allows. At the beginning of July this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who positively accepted our proposal," Lavrov said. "We were also informed by the Hamas leadership that they are ready to take part in such an event."
The Russian Foreign Minister pointed out that the current situation in the Middle East settlement "cannot be described as anything other than close to critical." "Of course, Washington's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the unified and indivisible capital of the state of Israel and the relocation of the American Embassy there also contributed to this," Lavrov said. - "We believe that the problem of Jerusalem, as well as other so-called final status issues, should be resolved within the framework of negotiations between the two direct parties to the conflict-the Israelis and the Palestinians. And anticipating their results only complicates the search for a settlement. This understanding is recorded in the generally recognized international legal framework for the Middle East settlement, which includes resolutions of the Security Council and the UN General Assembly and the Arab peace initiative."
Efforts of the international community
The Minister also stressed that it was extremely popular the international community's efforts for an early resumption of direct Palestinian-Israeli talks with the aim of reaching a comprehensive peace agreement between the parties under the auspices of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators - Russia, the US, the EU and the UN. "This is what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasized in his speech during the UN Security Council video conference on the Middle East settlement on June 24. Russia supports this call, " the Russian Foreign Minister said.
However, Lavrov continued, today this multilateral mechanism of international support for the settlement has been "essentially paralyzed due to the unconstructive position of the American side." "Washington links the continuation of work within the framework of the "Quartet" exclusively with the promotion of its peace plan, known as the "deal of the century", the Minister explained.
"With this in mind, we have expressed our readiness for further interaction on the Palestinian-Israeli issue in the Troika format - with the UN and the EU - with the possible involvement of leading regional states and organizations," the Russian Foreign Minister said.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS