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World Jewish News
Kremlin Sends Special Representative to Meet Lieberman
15.04.2009
This week the Deputy Foreign Minister of RF Alexander Saltanov comes to Israel.
His visit has a single purpose - to convince the head of Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman to attend the conference on the Middle East, which is scheduled for the second half of the year in Moscow. It is likely that Lieberman will respond positively to this request.
As the Ma'ariv newspaper reported on April 14, the meeting of Saltanov with Lieberman will be held on Friday morning. In the course of the meeting, deputy head of Russia's foreign ministry will require a final and unambiguous answer whether the Israeli delegation will participate in the conference in Moscow.
High-ranking sources in Jerusalem, referred to by the "Ma'ariv", argue that the answer will be positive, despite the fact that this conference is a kind of
continuation of the tripartite summit in Annapolis, held about one and a half years ago at the initiative of George Bush.
Despite the harsh statements about the process in Annapolis made by Lieberman upon taking the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he does not deny the very process of settlement with the Palestinians. In particular, this he said in an interview with the Russian agency Interfax, also noting the special importance of the role of Moscow in the Middle East settlement.
As for the conference in Moscow, previously, as Ma'ariv recalls, Jerusalem carefully distanced itself from this initiative, politely rejecting the suggestions of the Russian side. No clear answer was given during the visit of
the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov, who came to Israel shortly after the parliamentary elections and met with Benjamin Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni.
As a rule, the refusal by the Israeli side was explained by a number of requirements. First of all, they wanted the guarantee that the conference in Moscow will not be attended by Hamas representatives. In addition, Jerusalem
insisted that the final resolutions of the conference are not binding, and in the course of the meetings, no issues of territorial settlement are discussed.
In their turn, the U.S., EU, UN and several Arab countries welcomed the Kremlin's initiative. The matter depends only on Israel, and Alexander Saltanov will try to explain this to Avigdor Lieberman during the consultations in
Jerusalem.
A meeting of Saltanov with Benjamin Netanyahu has not been planned. The position of the Israeli side will be express only by Lieberman.
Before leaving for Israel, Alexander Saltanov held a briefing for journalists, during which he said that "Russia continues to actively work on convening in Moscow the international conference on the Middle East." However,
he said, the Russian Foreign Ministry does not link the timing of this meeting with a visit to Moscow of the U.S. President Barack Obama.
"The peace process in the Middle East should be given a new impetus. We believe that there is a need for fully fledged negotiations both in Palestinian-Israeli, Syrian-Israeli, and Lebanese-Israeli directions. But it is clear that in order to convene the conference and make it efficient, a minimum of conditions are required to achieve a tangible result," said the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
Regarding the change of government in Israel, Saltanov noted that "there is also a rethinking of policy" and "we are in constant contact with all our partners in the Middle East region."
At the end of the meeting Saltanov made it clear that "Moscow does not intend to change its decision and invite the representatives of the radical Islamist
movement Hamas to the conference in Moscow." But he stressed that "Moscow has not ceased the contacts with Hamas even for a day."
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