Russia Calls For Urgent Talks to End Middle East Crisis
Bill Gasperini, Moscow, 30 Mar 2002 16:20 UTC, VOA-news
Russia Calls For Urgent Talks to End Middle East Crisis
Bill Gasperini
Moscow
30 Mar 2002 16:20 UTC
Russia has called for urgent talks by various international officials
to try to end the Middle East crisis. Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov says
immediate steps are necessary to contain the spread of violence in the
region.
Foreign Minister Ivanov said envoys from Russia
and other countries should meet immediately in Jerusalem to implement a
United Nations resolution on the current crisis.
The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution early
Saturday calling for Israel to withdraw its forces from Palestinian towns,
including Ramallah, where Israeli forces have attacked Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat's headquarters.
Mr. Ivanov said envoys from the United States, Europe,
the United Nations and Russia should hold talks with Mr. Arafat, as well
as with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Earlier, Mr. Ivanov criticized the Israeli incursion
into Ramallah, saying it was only making a bad situation worse.
Russia said that isolating Mr. Arafat is not the
way to find a solution to the conflict, and it praised the Palestinian
leader's offer to declare an immediate cease-fire.
Russia has long sought to maintain balance in its
Middle East policy and is officially a co-sponsor of the peace process
along with the United States.
However, in recent years Moscow has taken a back
seat to Washington in active diplomacy in the region.
Russian officials say Moscow's Middle East envoy
was on his way to Israel after a stop in Damascus for talks with Syrian
officials. The envoy, Andrei Vdovin, attended the summit meeting of Arab
leaders last week in Beirut.
Russia has praised the peace initiative sponsored
by Saudi Arabia that was approved at the summit.
That initiative calls for Israel to withdraw from
all occupied territories. In exchange, the Arab world would normalize relations
with Israel.
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