MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. The reaction of Israelis and Palestinians to Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ to resolve the ongoing Mideast conflict is needed first and foremost, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference Tuesday when commenting on the White House’s peace plan that will be made public later in the day.
Washington has not informed Russia of any details of the deal, the top diplomat noted. Judging by the media leaks, this is a fundamentally new approach to settling the conflict, "differing from everything that has been recognized by the international community so far as a basis for a settlement", including resolutions of the UN Security Council, the Madrid Principles, the Arab Peace Initiative, the chief diplomat noted.
"We must wait for the official publication of the text," the minister insisted. "When this text is unveiled, it appears that the most important thing will be to learn the positions of the sides, primarily the position of the Palestinians, since as far as I understand, we are talking about the creation of a Palestinian state," Lavrov specified.
It is necessary to wait for the reaction of other Arab states and of the Arab League, since it was the mastermind behind "the Arab Peace Initiative, approved by the global community as an inalienable component of the settlement," he stressed. "I would also want to see the quartet of international mediators - Russia, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union - analyze the situation as well," he said, emphasizing that this "mechanism has been mostly inactive over the recent years, and was in no way engaged in an attempt to find generally acceptable solutions," he elaborated.
"So, let us refrain from drawing any preliminary conclusions. Rumors are rumors, but we must wait for official propositions and first of all understand what the parties that are directly involved think about these official proposals," he concluded.
Last week, the Palestinian Authority claimed that it would deny any US-proposed steps on settling the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that contradict international law.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump announced that the White House would publish the peace plan on Tuesday, at 12:00 EST (20:00 Moscow time).
"We have the support of the prime minister, we have the support of the other parties, and we think we will ultimately have the support of the Palestinians, but we’re going to see," Trump said, adding that "many of the Arab nations" also support this plan.