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Lavrov: Russia ready to host Israeli-Palestinian peace talks without preconditions

Moscow expects that this offer will be noticed and there will be a response, the Russian top diplomat said

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. Russia is prepared to host peace talks between Palestine and Israel without preconditions, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday at the opening of the Valdai International Discussion Club’s conference "Russia in the Middle East: Playing on All Fields."

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Lately, both the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian president as well as the King of Jordan have visited Moscow, he noted. "We are convinced that there is no other way than a direct agreement between Palestine and Israel," Lavrov said. "We confirm our readiness to provide a Russian venue for the Palestinian and Israeli leaders without preconditions."

"We expect that this offer will be noticed and there will be a response," he stressed.

Palestinian-Israeli issue can only be resolved through direct talks

The global community must create all conditions for a direct dialogue between Palestine and Israel, as there is no other way of resolving the crisis, according to Lavrov.

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Lavrov: Russia won’t accept statements on destroying Israel or on fighting Iran

"The new developments around the Palestinian-Israeli settlement requires understanding how the world community will try to accompany this process in order to create conditions for direct negotiations between Palestine and Israel," he said.

"There is no other way, it is necessary to create all conditions for direct negotiations," the minister stressed.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the pressing issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel insists that Jerusalem is its "eternal and indivisible" capital, whereas the Palestinians seek to make the city’s eastern part the capital of their future state. Another obstacle to resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the ongoing construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

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Military operation in Ukraine

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