MOSCOW, May 5. /TASS/. Moscow expects that no one will delay the effort on launching an international conference on the Middle East settlement as the situation on the ground requires responsible and swift decisions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference on Wednesday.
"We back [Palestinian] President Mahmoud Abbas’s initiative on arranging the international conference. Like I’ve already said, this initiative was put forward by Russia some time ago. It was approved by the [UN] Security Council in principle. Certainly, it requires thorough preparation. I believe that it’s quite real to arrange it in the framework of the Quartet and the Quartet’s cooperation with the Arab League. We will hope that no one will use pretexts for delaying this effort since the situation on the ground certainly requires swift and responsible decisions," Lavrov told a news conference after talks with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki.
Since the very beginning, Moscow has been calling for respecting and implementing the UN General Assembly’s resolutions on a two-state solution, which implies establishing the Jewish and Arab states. "The current situation requires the implementation of decisions, which were made by the UN Security Council after the Madrid conference, after the conference in Oslo, after Oslo-2. They stipulate recognizing the reality - which means two states. So, the Palestinian state should be created and all issues regarding the final status, including Jerusalem, refugees, water resources and so on, should be ironed out only through direct talks," Lavrov noted.
"From the very beginning, we have been active participants of drawing up these decisions, passing them and now we are among those states, which insist on their implementation. For this, there is the need for direct dialogue and resuming talks. This goal is in the center of our position probably over the past 20 years," Lavrov stressed.
Russia’s top diplomat also noted that under the Joe Biden administration Washington has returned to the idea of recognizing the two-state solution.
"Now when against this background we have managed to resume the work of the Quartet of international mediators - though at the level of experts and special representatives, but such contacts have begun - we believe it’s of principal importance, given that the accrued problems are huge and challenging, to hold the Quartet’s meeting at the level of ministers. This event is aimed at resetting efforts on fulfilling decisions on a two-state settlement," he noted.