Russian Foreign Ministry continues to insist on direct talks between Palestine and Israel

27 August 2020


The Russian delegation headed by the Special Representative of the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry for Middle East settlement Vladimir Safronkov, during a teleconference on the "Middle East Quartet" of international mediators (Russia, the US, the UN, the EU) on Wednesday spoke in favor of direct talks between Palestine and Israel to resolve the conflict, the Russian Foreign Ministry reports.


"The situation in the Palestinian-Israeli settlement was reviewed. At the same time, the Russian side stressed the need to create conditions for launching direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations on a set of final status issues, the Ministry noted. "It was emphasized that a stable and fair settlement should be achieved in accordance with the principle of "two states" on the existing international legal basis, including the resolutions of the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly and the Arab peace initiative."


Despite the fact that the normalization of international relations in the Middle East would be a positive phenomenon, it should not obscure the solution of a set of regional problems, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.


"This Russian position was supported by representatives of the UN and the EU," Moscow stated.


Russian diplomats said that the conference participants agreed to maintain contacts in the format of a Quartet.


State of Affairs


On January 28, Trump presented a peace plan known as the "deal of the century". The White House plan recognizes Jerusalem as the united and indivisible capital of Israel, opens up the possibility for the Jewish state to annex the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and extend its sovereignty to the Jordan valley, and also 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 suburbs of Jerusalem as the future capital of Palestine.


In early August, the US announced its intention to restore UN sanctions against Tehran, again accusing Iran of violating the nuclear deal. On August 20, Pompeo transmitted to the President of the UN Security Council a request from Washington to start the procedure for restoring the organization's sanctions against Iran. The Israeli authorities noted that they welcome the US sanctions against Iran and consider them an important step in ensuring security in the region.

 

GSV "Russia - Islamic World"

Photo: Li Muzi \ Zuma \ TASS

Based on materials from TASS