ID :
112217
Thu, 03/18/2010 - 00:25
Auther :

Ban Ki-moon to hold talks with Russian leaders in Moscow.

MOSCOW, March 17 (Itar-Tass) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
arrives in Moscow Wednesday for talks with the Russian leadership on
interaction in the format of the UN.
Also, he will take part in a ministerial conference of the Middle East
Quartet of negotiators - Russia, the U.S., the UN, and the EU.
Thursday, March 18, Ban Ki-moon is expected to have a meeting with
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"The sides will discuss the solution of pressing international
problems simultaneously with consolidation of the UN's central and
coordinating role," Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman Sergei
Nesterenko said.
He indicated that Lavrov and Secretary General Ban will take up the
issues as pressing as the situation in the Middle East, the peace
settlement in Iraq, Sudan and the developments around it, nuclear
nonproliferation, disarmament, and humanitarian assistance via the UN
agencies.
Friday, March 19, Ban Ki-moon will attend the Moscow ministerial-level
conference of the Middle East Quartet.
Sergei Lavrov said earlier the parties to the Quartet are getting
together to discuss the knotty situation in the Middle East settlement and
the ideas that might be offered to the sides involved in the dragged-out
conflict so as to lay the scene for a resumption of talks.
Ban Ki-moon voiced the hope on his part that the Quartet's meeting
will give a new impulse to the process of rehabilitation of negotiations
among the Israelis and Palestinians.
Analysts indicate along with this that a new spate of standoff between
the Israelis and Palestinians is unfolding after a short enough lull.
In the first place, tensions have been fuelled by Israeli Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's declarations that new housing will be built
for Jews in East Jerusalem.
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian National Authority
said the Palestinian delegation cannot agree to a resumption of talks with
the Israelis under this situation.
Experts say international mediators are taking unprecedented steps to
remedy the situation, which has already produced some tensions between
Israel and the U.S., at least to a certain degree.
Emissaries of the EU, the U.S., and Russia are arriving one after
another in the Middle East.
After the end of negotiations in Moscow, Ban Ki-moon also plans to go
to the region where he will visit Israel, the West Bank of the Jordan and
the Gaza Strip.

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