Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov discussed the Palestinian-Israeli settlement with Fatah Central Committee member and Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh over the phone, the Russian MFA reported.
"During the conversation, the sides discussed the problems of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement, including in light of the telephone conversation held the day before between PNA head M. Abbas and US Secretary of State A. Blinken, as well as the upcoming meeting of the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in early February," the Russian MFA said in a commentary on its website.
It is noted that the urgency of holding an early meeting of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators with the participation of Russia, the US, the EU and the UN at the ministerial level was emphasized.
"A consistent position in support of the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to establish an independent state within the 1967 borders, coexisting in peace and security with Israel was confirmed from the Russian side," the ministry added.
The US and the Palestinian Authority are trying to re-establish cooperation, which was almost completely curtailed under former President Donald Trump. The WAFA news agency wrote earlier that Abbas stressed during the conversation the need to end the Israeli occupation, end settlement construction and settler attacks, respect the status quo around the al-Aqsa mosque, and stop expelling Palestinian residents from neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Abbas stressed the need to stop Israel's unilateral steps, which undermine the two-state solution for two peoples, and called for a ministerial meeting of the International Quartet of Middle East mediators to launch a real political process.
The controversy that led to the cessation of contact between the Palestinian National Authority and the authorities in the Gaza Strip, as well as Hamas and Fatah, emerged after Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections and Hamas supporters gained power in the Gaza Strip in 2007. In October 2018, both movements signed an agreement in Cairo to overcome the split and restore the integrity of the Palestinian political system, but most of the agreements have yet to be implemented in practice.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Ministry of Education
Based on materials from RIA Novosti