PHOTO - TASS/Valery Sharifulin
The Israeli Foreign Ministry is unhappy with the visit of representatives of the Palestinian Hamas movement to Russia, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's press service said on 26 October.
"Israel considers inviting Hamas leaders to Moscow an undignified step," They noted.
Earlier that day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that representatives of the Palestinian movement were visiting Moscow. According to RIA Novosti sources, Hamas politburo member Abu Marzuk arrived in the Russian capital.
Zakharova also said that Russia is trying to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as soon as possible and is also in contact with key players. She stressed that the conflict has no solution by force and can be resolved exclusively by political and diplomatic means through the establishment of a full-fledged negotiation process on a well-known international legal basis, which should result in the creation of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem, coexisting in peace and security with Israel.
In addition, on 26 October, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the Russian side had discussed the release of hostages and the evacuation of Russians from the Gaza Strip at a meeting with Hamas in Moscow. As the department noted, Abu Marzuk, a member of the Hamas Islamic Resistance Movement's politburo, is currently in Moscow. He was in talks with him about the release of foreign hostages located in the Gaza Strip.
As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted, Russian President Vladimir Putin is not planning to meet with representatives of the Palestinian Hamas movement who are visiting Moscow. As the Russian president's press secretary explained, contacts with Hamas will only be through the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of 7 October when Hamas exposed Israeli territory to massive rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and also invaded border areas in the south of the country. On the same day, Israel began retaliating against targets in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians are trying to return the border between the two countries to the lines that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestine wants to create its own state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and make East Jerusalem its capital. Israel rejects the conditions set.
(Izvestia/USA)
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