Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Envoy on the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov on Saturday told PLO Central Committee member Hussein al-Sheikh that Russia is ready to organize a personal meeting in Moscow between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, TASS reported.
“[Bogdanov] highlighted the actuality of the proposal made by the Russian authorities earlier regarding personal meeting between [Abbas and Netanyahu] without preconditions in Moscow,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday.
Al-Sheikh told Bogdanov about the latest decision of the Palestinian Authority to sever its cooperation with Israel.
According to the Foreign Ministry, Russia confirmed its “unwavering position in support of the lawful rights of the Palestinian people for self-determination, including creation of its own independent state within the 1967 borders with the capital in Eastern Jerusalem that would live in peace and good neighborhood with Israel.”
The Russian side “also stated its readiness to continue efforts, including within the Middle Eastern Quartet, to provide cooperation in building a constructive Palestine-Israeli negotiations process, based on the known international legal basis of the Middle Eastern settlement,” the Ministry added.
Since May 20, when Abbas announced that all cooperation with Israel, including between security forces, have been cancelled, the IDF has not initiated arrests of terror suspects in the PA. Meanwhile, there have already been clashes between Hamas demonstrators and the PA security forces, which resulted in injuries.