Russia to support any agreements for sake of achieving Palestinian unity - Lavrov

MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. Russia will support any agreements the Palestinians may achieve on the track of national reconciliation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with participants in the intra-Palestinian meeting in Moscow on Tuesday. "We will support in every possible way any agreements you may achieve between yourselves," he said. "The way we see it, another step along these lines can be made with the approval of a final document of your meeting. Its draft has been called the Moscow Declaration." "We are your friends and impartial, objective assistants and mediators, including our role in the quartet of international mediators, and we are certain that the framework agreements achieved in Cairo in October 2017 create a real basis for a compromise among all Palestinians," Lavrov said. "As it seems to us, this agreement contains a viable compromise formula of national accord, which accommodates the fact that all parts of a united Palestinian people and all of you have the right to be represented by your organizations in Palestine’s governing bodies." Lavrov expressed the hope that all Palestinian movements would manage to brush their selfish party interests aside. "We are not in the position to impose anything on you, but as your friends we can say that we see the top priority in restoring the ability of all of you to participate as a united entity in future talks with our Israeli counterparts. We realize that this must be done on the platform of the Palestine Liberation Organization," Lavrov said, adding that Russia would be invariably prepared to provide a platform for intra-Palestinian meetings. An intra-Palestinian meeting of delegations from Fatah, Hamas and other movements is being held in Moscow on February 11-13. Read more