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Palestinian-Israeli conflict can be settled in 2 years - Lavrov
Published: 30 June, 2010, 13:49
Edited: 05 July, 2010, 03:24
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Jerusalem on June 29, 2010 (AFP Photo / Gali Tibbon)
(15.7Mb) embed videoTAGS: Arms, Conflict, Meeting, Nuclear, Middle East, Politics
After negotiations with both sides, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has made an optimistic statement on the end of Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
A two-year term has actually been stated in the March agreement signed by the international mediating Quartet, in which Russia, the US, EU and UN promised to apply all efforts to resolve the issue by 2012.
“If all parties show goodwill and mutual trust, if all third-party players will actively stimulate the parties to reach agreement, then it is real,” Sergey Lavrov is quoted by RIA-Novosti after his Tuesday talks with the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
However, the Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, does not share Lavrov's optimism.
He thinks "there is no chance of creating an independent Palestinian state by 2012" as quoted by RIA-Novosti earlier on Tuesday.
Boris Morozov, a political analyst from the Institute for Russian and Eastern European Studies at Tel Aviv university agrees, saying there are no signs for the situation to be improving.
“The situation over the past two months only degenerated and there is no indication it will get better,” Morozov said.
At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, on a visit to Jerusalem, has clarified Russia’s position on relations with Hamas.
"The economic development of Gaza cannot be achieved without direct regular contact with Hamas. The process is not easy but if we are not dealing with this issue, we will not have any results," Lavrov said on Tuesday to RIA Novosti news agency.
During his visit, Lavrov stressed that Russia will maintain contacts with the Hamas movement "as most Palestinians said ‘yes’ to Hamas during the elections that were recognized as free and democratic by the whole international community."
"In all our negotiations we are trying to convince Hamas to take the route of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and choose a peaceful Arabic initiative, which was also many times supported by the Quartet position," ITAR-TASS quotes the minister at the press-conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday. “Some progress has been made. We will continue working."
Jerusalem is but one stop in Lavrov's Middle East trip. A short visit to Palestine is also scheduled for Tuesday and the final stop will be in Cairo, Egypt, where the Russian Foreign Minister is a frequent guest. In Cairo, Sergey Lavrov intends to spend Tuesday and Wednesday in talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Aboul Gheit and the Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa. Then the minister will head back to Moscow.
Moscow wants a CIA update on the Iran nuclear program
The aim to get more information from the US special services on Iran’s nuclear program follows the recent CIA statement that "Iran has the capabilities to create two nuclear bombs in the near future."
"If the CIA has information that Iran has indeed started enriching uranium to the weapons-grade level, then this information is new and we would like to study this data," Sergey Lavrov is quoted by Interfax news agency during his press-conference in Jerusalem. “If we…assume that Iran can produce enough weapons-grade uranium to make two nuclear bombs, it would have become known a long time ago.”
Earlier in his visit, the Foreign Minister voiced hopes that Iran would stop independent uranium enrichment at 20 per cent and recalled that "Brazil and Turkey have already proposed to partake in the Iranian uranium exchange scheme." A further intergovernmental meeting on this issue was also proposed by Russia, the US and France.
Oxana Likhacheva, RT
30.06.2010, 10:40
3 comments
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30.06.2010, 15:07
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Militarization, security, more troops and more troops joining in the both sides, has never and will never bring peace to any part of our "that much intelligent" human race. I mean for f*** sake that place is holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians. NOVAYA RUSSIA, keep it up and keep it real. My love always with you. And I am dying to test fly T-50 (on my pc only).
Mr. Lavrov says "If all parties show goodwill and mutual trust". Where is the goodwill and trust from Hamas the terrorist regime that swears to destroy Israel? Where is the goodwill and trust from Mr. Abbas who continues to name public places after terrorist bombers? The failure of the so-called "Peace Process" is 100% due to the ongoing hatred of Israel by Hamas, Hezbollah and their Iranian overlords.
The ideas put forward seem to revolve around a solution of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as a State for the remnants of the Palestinian People, that have survived the ethnic cleansing of Palestine as a whole by so called Israel. This looks very similar to what the British did in India in 1947 in the sub continent of India, East and West Pakistan. Which was a flawed idea and ended up in a bloody war and East Pakistan becoming Bangladesh. Israel has never recognized the Palestinians as the ethnic population of the land they stole to create the mess we see there now, or that Palestine has been an existent country for a few thousand years. Neither do they have any good relationships with their close neighbors and beyond, except Egypt and that is a country with a form of quasi dictatorship, not really a democracy of the people. The two state solution was envisaged by the British, who created the mess in the first place, and realized it would never work. The final solution, decided on just before WW2, was one state for all. They would have to live together. But alas it never happened, they walked out and Uncle Sam moved in. The solution of one state for all can work. Lebanon is a confessional state and it works. Israelis who wish to stay and live with the ethnic population on an equal basis do so. Those who don't can go home to their respective countries they came from, they would not be refugees but the same as the British who left India. The surrounding countries would support such a move and tensions would disappear overnight. The present situation is untenable and has been for too long and a two state solution would not resolve the tension in that part of the world nor would it bring final relief to the Palestinian refugees created by the creation of Israel by the west.