BEIJING, October 17. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet put forward his own initiative for achieving a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as it must first be worked out in detail by all sides, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"No, in order to come forward with a peace initiative, it must be properly formulated, it needs to be discussed with everyone, we need to understand the positions of the sides, we need to understand all of the trends," he said when asked whether Putin himself would put forward a peace initiative to achieve a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The Kremlin spokesman added that Putin had probably "already formed a certain opinion about the results of his telephone conversations" with the parties to the conflict and other regional leaders and would now discuss them with his Chinese interlocutors while on his visit to China to attend the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. The day before, the Russian president spoke with the Israeli prime minister and the presidents of Egypt, Iran, Palestine and Syria. "It is, of course, very important for two such powers as Russia and China to compare their positions on such complex problems," Peskov pointed out.
In addition, the spokesman said that "one does not come out with an initiative for the sake of an initiative." "You come forward to somehow help the settlement; now, before helping the settlement, it is necessary to help get out of the hot war phase," Peskov noted, stressing that in this case the efforts of all countries can only be welcomed. He recounted Putin's words about Russia's readiness to do its part in resolving the problem.
"We see that the conflict has gone on so long [it has become chronic], and what is happening is actually a tragedy that is unfolding and a humanitarian [catastrophe]; these are all the consequences of decades of neglect in the Middle East settlement process," the Kremlin spokesman said.