MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th April, 2019) Secretary General of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine Nayef Hawatmeh called on Thursday for holding a new intra-Palestinian meeting in Moscow, asking Russia to support the right of the Palestinians to self-determination.
Major Palestinian political forces met in Moscow on February 13-14 at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian academy of Sciences. The meeting ended with no final statement since participants to the talks failed to reach a consensus on a number of points related to East Jerusalem.
"Aggressive steps are continuing, Israeli aggression is continuing, and we, the Palestinians, must take concrete steps and receive international support. We have to overcome the split, I call for holding the same negotiations as we did in February in Moscow in the near future ... We call on Russia to support our demands for granting us the right to self-determination, creation of our own state, returning of refugees," Hawatmeh said at a press conference at Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency in Moscow.
He also said that Palestine wanted Russia to participate in the work aimed at achieving international balance.
"Russia is a state that can contribute to achieving this balance together with other BRICS countries. In this situation, the role of Russia should be at least equal to the role of the United States in the middle East; it should be a counterbalance to the United States, and it can be that like. Moreover, China supports Russia," Hawatmeh stressed.
Russia is one of mediators in both the Israeli conflict and the intra-Palestinian talks. US President Donald Trump's administration has meanwhile also been working on its peace plan for Israeli-Palestinian settlement for months. The Palestinians rejected Washington's involvement in the conflict settlement after Trump had recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and had moved the US embassy there in May. The United States did this despite the United Nations recommendation not to establish diplomatic missions in the Holy City until its legal status is settled.
