Russia is ready to participate in meetings of the Middle East Quartet with regional states, Russian Ambassador to the organization Vasily Nebenzia stated at a meeting of the UN Security Council.
«Russia, as a member of the Middle East Quartet of mediators, is ready to fully join efforts to preserve the principles of settlement contained in the relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, the Madrid principles and the Arab peace initiative,» the Russian diplomat said.
Current events, he said, demonstrate «the urgent need to participate in efforts to save the peace process.»
«And we are ready to support and assist them as a member of the Quartet. We are also ready to cooperate with all key regional countries in order to consolidate collective efforts and (ready to –ed.) hold meetings of the Quartet with their participation,» Nebenzia said.
He noted that Russia will continue its dialogue with the countries of the Middle East and the Arab League.
Israel's plans to annex the Palestinian territories, meanwhile, according to the Russian Ambassador, may undermine the Middle East settlement.
«Plans to annex the Palestinian territories threaten to undermine this process (Middle East settlement - ed.),» Nebenzia said.
On May 19, the head of the Palestinian national authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said that Palestine decided to terminate all agreements with Israel and the United States against the background of the Israeli government's intentions to annex Palestinian lands.
«This means that we can't waste time. We see no alternative to the peaceful coexistence of two states - Palestine and Israel. In this regard, we reiterate our call to avoid any unilateral actions that could undermine the prospects for a settlement, » the diplomat said.
The day before, the PNA Ambassador in Cairo and Permanent Representative to the Arab League Diyab Alluh said in an interview for RIA Novosti that Palestine hopes for support from Russia in countering the plans of Israel and the United States to annex the Jordan valley.
«We very much count on Russia's position as a strategic ally of Palestine, that it will support political, legal and diplomatic steps to suspend this aggressive Israeli-American plan against the Palestinians and the Palestinian territories. This plan is aimed not only at expropriating territories, but also at replacing the population of these territories with settlers,» Alluh said.
According to the diplomat, in this regard, the Council of Arab ambassadors to Russia recently held a meeting with representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, where it transmitted the decision of the last meeting of the Arab League Council of Ministers.
«Undoubtedly, the implementation of the plan of Israel and the American administration to annex the territories and their annexation will have negative consequences for the entire region,» he said.
«We warn against what will happen and monitor the situation. We hope that the efforts made by the fraternal Arab countries, the EU and the countries of the world will be crowned with success and will suspend these plans in order to avoid negative consequences,» the diplomat said.
On April 30, the Arab League, following a video conference of Foreign Ministers, equated Israel's plans to annex the occupied territories, including the Jordan valley, to a war crime. The Arab League called on the US administration to withdraw its support for Israel's plans.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East settlement Nikolay Mladenov said on April 23 that Israel's annexation of areas in the West Bank would close the door to negotiations and endanger the achievement of peace in the region. According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, Russia shares fears that the implementation of plans that appeared in the media for the future coalition government of Israel to annex part of the territory of the West Bank could undermine the prospect of creating an independent and territorially continuous Palestinian state.
The Palestinians, as part of the peace settlement process with Israel, which is currently suspended, demand that the future borders between the two sovereign states follow the lines that existed before the six-day war in 1967, with a possible exchange of territories.
They hope to establish a state in the West Bank and the Gaza strip, and they want to make East Jerusalem their capital. Israel refuses to return to the borders of 1967, much less to share Jerusalem with the Arabs, which has already declared its eternal and indivisible capital.
The so-called «deal of the century», presented by US President Donald Trump at the end of January, recognizes Jerusalem as the unified and indivisible capital of Israel, opens up the possibility for Israel to annex the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and extend its sovereignty to the Jordan valley, and also offers the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state, deprived of control over its borders and airspace. The plan proposes the village of Abu Dis in the Eastern suburbs of Jerusalem as the future capital of Palestine.