Russia supports a recent initiative proposed by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to hold an “international peace conference”, a senior official said yesterday

The country’s special envoy to the Middle East and Africa, and deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, made the announcement during a meeting with the director of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)’s political department Anwar Abdul-Hadi in Moscow.

Bogdanov praised what he described as “Abbas’ wise stances that support stability in the region on the basis of the international legitimacy resolutions.”

The Russian official reiterated his country’s support for the Palestinian people and their right to determine their fate and to establish an independent state on the 1967 border, with Eastern Jerusalem as its capital.

On his part, Abdul-Hadi discussed the developments in the region, pointing to what he described as “the Israel-biased US policy”.

In August, the US administration said that it would stop its financial support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), denying the Palestinian refugees’ right of return to the homes from which they were forced out to make way for the creation of  the state of Israel in 1948.

Abdul-Hadi pointed to the need to financially support “UNRWA’s current deficit” after the US ceased its funding. He also stressed on the need to support the reconstruction of the Palestinian camps in Syria.

The Palestinian official hailed Abbas’ efforts to convene a multilateral international peace conference as well as the efforts the Palestinian Authority (PA) to end the country’s internal division.

 

Source: Middle East Monitor