Palestine hopes that Russia will influence the Hamas militant group into complying with its 2017 agreement with Fatah and restore Palestinian unity, the country's foreign minister, Riad Malki, said on Friday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st December, 2018) Palestine hopes that Russia will influence the Hamas militant group into complying with its 2017 agreement with Fatah and restore Palestinian unity, the country's foreign minister, Riad Malki, said on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Malki met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.
"We have also welcomed any role that Russia could have in promoting this process, as well as expressed our hope that Russia will have the necessary influence on Hamas so that this movement fulfills its commitments under the agreement from October 2017 to overcome the intra-Palestinian split," Malki said at a joint press conference after his meeting with Lavrov.
The continuing row between the movements negatively affects the Palestinian people, the foreign minister noted.
Hamas and Fatah are the main political forces in Palestinian territories. Last year, they agreed to govern the Gaza Strip and West Bank together but missed the December 2017 deadline to form a functioning cabinet over differences.
