MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be resolved through direct negotiations taking into account both parties’ interests and the decisions made by the international community, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.

"We are confident that only direct dialogue between Israel and Palestine, the talks aimed at achieving a balance of interests with an emphasis on decisions made by the international community can resolve that long-term conflict in the region," he told reporters at a joint news conference with Bahrain’s top diplomat Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa.

"We have a common stance on the situation in the Arab-Israeli settlement process, taking into account attempts to revise the existing international legal framework for the Middle East settlement process," Lavrov stressed. "Of course, we are very much concerned about the recent developments. I have in mind the United States’ stance on rejecting all decisions made by the international community and by the UN Security Council regarding the need to stop Israel’s settlement activities and declare illegitimate the situation where territories in the West Bank are under Israeli occupation."

On November 18, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Washington no longer believed that Israeli settlements in the West Bank contravened international law. Israel welcomed the decision, but Palestine responded that the US administration was not authorized to repeal international resolutions regarding Jewish settlements.