World News | Russia Ready to Promote Direct Israeli-Palestinian Contacts

Moscow, May 5 (AP) Russia is ready to promote direct contacts between Israel and the Palestinian leadership and working toward a high-level meeting of the Middle East Quartet mediating the Israel-Palestinian peace process, the Russian foreign minister said Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after meeting with Palestinian counterpart Riad al-Maliki, “We emphasised our readiness to facilitate direct dialogue between the Palestinians and Israelis in order to resolve all fundamental final-status issues.”

Lavrov said Russia considers it crucial to hold a ministerial-level meeting of the Quartet, which consists of Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.

Palestinian Foreign Minister al-Maliki said that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden “is again aware of its responsibility in the Quartet....We expect that this will create a new environment of trust.”

Al-Maliki said that during Donald Trump's presidency, "the American administration showed that it openly leaned toward Israel. Based on this experience, we understand that we cannot return to that situation.” (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)