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Moscow to support Palestine’s efforts for Middle East settlement: Putin

Monday, 18 April 2016 11:55 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 19 April 2016 1:05 AM ]

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting in Moscow, April 18, 2016. (AFP)

Russia will support Palestine’s efforts to settle its conflict with the Israeli regime through negotiation, President Vladimir Putin says.

"We will support your efforts aimed at making more effective steps needed in order to reach constructive dialogue" with Tel Aviv, Putin said during Monday's talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow.

The Russian president also said he would like to talk about regional problems as well as bilateral economic ties, especially in the context of the creation of a Russian-Palestinian intergovernmental commission, at his meeting with Abbas.

The Palestinian leader, for his turn, said that he is in favor of holding an international conference on the Middle East settlement.

"Now the question of holding an international Middle East conference is on the agenda," Abbas said. "This issue is very important for us."

The last round of the so-called peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians collapsed in 2014. Tel Aviv’s illegal settlement activities and its refusal to release senior Palestinian prisoners were among major reasons behind the failure of the talks.

Tel Aviv formally suspended the talks with the Palestinian Authority on April 24, 2014, after Abbas forged a unity pact with the Hamas resistance movement, which is based in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Israel responded to the unity pact by announcing tenders for the building of 4,800 illegal settler units on the occupied Palestinian territories.

*Workers at a construction site in the illegal Israeli settlement of Giv'at Ze'ev near the West Bank city of Ramallah, April 14, 2016 (AFP)*

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of their future independent state, with East al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital. The State of Palestine is recognized by 136 out of the 193 United Nations member states.

Many political analysts believe the Israeli regime is not in favor of a so-called two-state solution in the occupied Palestinian territories.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned on Monday that the two-state solution “seems more distant than it has for many decades,” citing the continuing tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel’s illegal settlement activities and its demolitions of Palestinian homes.

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