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Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Chances for direct talks between Palestine and Israel slim, Russia's top diplomat says

MOSCOW, January 15./TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sees as slim the chances for direct negotiations between Palestine and Israel in the current situation.

"So far, there has been no such direct contact without preliminary conditions [between Palestine and Israel], and in the current situation I think the chances for that tend to zero, which is sad," the diplomat said at his annual news conference on Monday.

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Upper house speaker warns recognizing Jerusalem as Israeli capital ‘dangerous precedent’

He said Moscow understands the moods of the Palestinians, who "have been making unilateral concessions step by step without getting anything instead for many years". The diplomat reiterated that Palestine had been ready for direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions, and Russia was ready to offer its platform for this.

He also mentioned statements about US plans to make public a certain major deal on the issue that would be satisfy all parties. "We have not seen or heard about such a document or even some statement," he stated. Lavrov said the ongoing problem is "one of the major factors enabling radicals to recruit new generations of terrorists".

"We should not give up on this, we don’t want to allow a full breach of contacts between the sides," he added.

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