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It is impossible to settle the Palestinian problem without progress on the Syrian or Lebanese tracks – Russian diplomat
"It is becoming increasingly evident that it is impossible to make real progress not only in the peace process as a whole but on its core Palestinian section separately from the other directions of the settlement - Syrian and Lebanese," Russian presidential envoy to the Middle East, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov, told Interfax in an interview ahead of the meeting of the quartet of international mediators in Washington on February 2.
"Therefore it would be correct to think of our strategy and tactics of reviving the negotiating dialogue in all tracks of the Middle East settlement," he said.
He reiterated the importance of considering the idea of organizing and convening a conference for the Middle East.
Speaking of the state of Palestinian-Israeli relations Saltanov said Moscow would like to see the establishment of permanent and direct dialogue between Israel and Palestine.
"It is important to encourage the parties to switch to real talks which would bring the main result envisaged in the road map - the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state - closer," he said.
"This means assisting a switch from direct dialogue between President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert that was launched on the eve of 2007 and planned upcoming meetings to full-scale talks aimed at rapid movement toward agreements," Saltanov said.
Russia will advocate a decisive breakthrough in the Middle East settlement at a meeting in Washington, the high-ranking diplomat said.
“Of course, Israelis and Arabs bear the main responsibility for such a turn. However, the goal of the quartet is to make every possible effort to help the two parties to move in the direction. We are going to discuss efforts to be taken by mediators in the upcoming period in details at the meeting,” the diplomat said.
“The dragging out of the solution to the key issue – Palestine – has been discouraging,” he said.
“The situation in the region requires the discussion of real steps that need to be taken to unblock the Middle East peace process as soon as possible and to give it a ‘second wind’ in the format [of the quartet],” he said.
Saltanov said Moscow supports fully lifting the economic blockade from Palestine and is counting on the quartet to make that decision.
"Russia has always spoken against the blockade, and we hope that the quartet will take heed of our viewpoint," he said.
"We proceed from the fact that success in forming a national unity government of the PNA that meets the known criteria of the international community, would make it possible to take into the practical field the issue of lifting the economic blockade, which multiplies the hardship and suffering of the Palestinian people," Saltanov said.
Domestic Palestinian situation will be discussed in terms of the quartet, he said. The deputy minister said that Russia's attitude is to "encourage the main political forces in the PNA to reach a compromise in relation to creating a coalition government, in order to prevent the threat of inter-Palestine conflict that might have dangerous consequences both for the Palestinians and for the region."
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