|
World Jewish News
Terms of Jerusalem satisfied - Israel will participate in Moscow conference
14.04.2009
Israel has agreed to participate in a peace conference on Middle East settlement, which will be held in the coming months in Moscow. Officially, this will be announced on Friday at a meeting of the Head of Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman with the RF Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov.
The conference in Moscow was conceived as the next stage of Annapolis process.
However, Olmert's government, under various pretexts, opposed it. The situation changed after Netanyahu's Cabinet took their positions.
About a month ago, Avigdor Lieberman gave an interview to "Interfax" news agency. There he outlined his position on this issue:
"Israel should and will participate in this conference. Any dialogue is only welcome, especially when the dialogue in the framework of the "quartet": Russia, the USA, the UN and the European Union. We hope that the agenda will be agreed in advance, so we try to achieve convergence of positions beforehand. We consider Russia a very important factor, in the Middle East, in particular."
During the talks on the preparations for the conference Israel lay down a number of requirements which were satisfied. Thus, the representatives of Hamas will not come to Moscow. The conference will not include bilateral talks - either with the Palestinian Autonomy or Syria.
It should be noted that the new head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs seeks to strengthen relations with Russia, but is opposed against Annapolis agreements.
Netanyahu's government refuses to declare support of the principle "two states for two peoples." Lieberman also said that the negotiations in their present form were deadlocked, and that a new approach to the problem is needed.
By the beginning of the conference, the government should formulate its foreign policy agenda. Then perhaps it will have other consequences, besides strengthening the international authority of Russia.
|
|
