Russia reconciles Palestinians

Russia will continue to maintain relations with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). “This is relevant now, when the problem of Palestinian unity is becoming more acute,” said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He made it clear that without unity among the Palestinians, it would be impossible to achieve conditions for the resumption and success of negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities. The head of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (pictured), is arriving in Russia these days, where he will hold talks with President Dmitry Medvedev tomorrow in Sochi. They already met in April 2009 in Moscow , when the guest spoke, including to Vremya Novostei, about the need to quickly hold a major conference in Moscow on the problems of the Middle East. The Palestinians are interested in international support for the creation of their independent state.

However, the conference never took place, and now Russia, as VN has learned, proposes to hold a meeting in Moscow of the quartet of mediators in the Middle East settlement (Russia, the USA, the European Union, the UN). Negotiations could take place at the level of heads of foreign policy departments, and the Americans do not object to this idea. The only condition is that there should be at least some progress in relations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, who have so far refused to negotiate.

74-year-old Mahmoud Abbas will visit Moscow after Sochi, and then Kazan (Tatarstan). Trips to the regions have become a tradition since December 2008, when the leader of the Palestinian Authority visited not only the capital, but also Chechnya. Last spring he visited Dagestan. In Moscow this time, as VN was told at the Palestinian Embassy in Moscow, he will meet with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Yevgeny Primakov, Patriarch Kirill and Chairman of the Council of Muftis Ravil Gainutdin. The guest is accompanied by such famous Palestinian functionaries as Saeb Erikat and Azzam Ahmad.

Elena SUPONINA