“Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Bogdanov and Chargé d'affaires ad interim of Israel to Moscow Yacov Livne discussed the Palestinian-Israeli settlement” , noted in the report of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“During their conversation, the officials exchanged opinions on the current Middle East agenda with a focus on the prospects of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process”, the report says.
In addition to it, they discussed some practical aspects of further consolidating comprehensive Russian-Israeli cooperation, including in countering the coronavirus and its consequences.
In late May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the date of annexation of territories in West Bank within U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century”. According to Netanyahu, the establishment of Israeli sovereignty in the Jewish settlements of the West Bank will take place on July 1, and there is no intention to change this date. Later, Minister of Higher Education and Water Resources Ze’ev Elkin said in an interview with the local press that the date of the annexation could be shifted by several days or weeks.
The Israeli authorities have begun taking concrete steps towards annexation. Alternate Prime Minister of Israel and Minister of Defense Benny Gantz instructed the Chief of General Staff to expedite army training in connection with the extension of Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank.
On January 28, Donald Trump presented a peace settlement plan, known as the “Deal of the Century”. The White House plan recognizes Jerusalem as the unified and indivisible capital of Israel, gives Israel the opportunity to annex Palestinian territories in the West Bank and extend its sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, and proposes the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian State without control over its borders and airspace. The plan proposes the village of Abu Dis in the eastern suburb of Jerusalem as the future capital of Palestine.
The Palestinians and a number of countries have not supported this plan because they believe it deprives Palestinians of their right to the territories stipulated in UN resolutions. Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian National Authority, also rejected the new plan, saying that the Palestinians insist on recognition of their state on the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital.
On May 19, Abbas announced that Palestine decided to terminate all agreements with Israel and the U.S. against the backdrop of the Israeli government's intention to annex Palestinian land.
The Palestinian-Israeli settlement was also one of the main topics of discussion at the meeting of Bogdanov with Arab League Representative to Moscow Jaber Hamidavi”, the report of the Russian Foreign Ministry says.
“A thorough exchange of views was held on the issues of practical cooperation between Russia and the LAS in the interest of a speedy resolution of the crisis situations in the Middle East and North Africa, with a focus on Yemen, Syria and the Palestinian-Israeli direction. Special attention was paid to the initiative of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on the Libyan settlement, put forward on June 6 in Cairo”, the Russian Foreign Ministry says in particular.
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Photo: Valeriy Sharifulin/TASS
Based on materials from RIA Novosti and Press Center of Russian Foreign Ministry