All news

Israel, Palestine must come to terms with each other on their own — Kremlin

Neither Russia nor the United States of America can resolve this conflict, the Kremlin spokesman said

MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/. Russia can and will be only a mediator in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, steps that exacerbate the situation should be avoided, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"Russia cannot resolve this conflict. Neither Russia nor the United States of America. Russia can contribute to efforts to resolve this crisis by continuing its consistent policy, well-known policy both on the bilateral basis, during its contacts with Israel and Palestine, and within the framework of the existing multilateral formats," the Kremlin spokesman said.

According to Peskov, "the most important thing is to refrain from steps that can lead to a substantial rift in the international community and whip up tensions among the main parties to the Middle East settlement, that is, Israel and Palestine who are able to resolve this crisis." "No one can do that for them," he stressed.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow had never claimed to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by itself. He recalled that Russia had always been working within the Quartet of international mediators, which is comprised of Russia, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union. He voiced regret over the fact that the US had been repeatedly making statements that the Palestinian-Israeli problem will be resolved by it only. According to Russia’s top diplomat, Russia is not seeking to claim "sole headship" on that matter, but wants to achieve specific results rather than to hit any propaganda jackpot.