Egypt's President says Russia is ready to mediate for Israel-Palestine peace talks

Cairo: Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed willingness to reinstate the peace talks between Israel and Palestine. Putin is prepared to have a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, and Mahmoud Abbas, the President of Palestine in Moscow. The President of Egypt, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi informed that Mr Putin himself said this to him.

President Sisi gave this information during a discussion with the Editor of the Egyptian government newspaper. Recently there was a discussion between the President of Egypt and the President of Russia, during which Putin expressed Russia’s stand point on the negotiations between Israel and Palestine. Putin is ready to mediate between the two countries. Sis also said that according to Putin direct conversation between the leaders of the two countries and resolution of the conflict is very important.

The Egyptian President added that there has been an increasing support for peace talks from Israel, which is a positive sign. On the background of the events happening in the Gulf, there is good response from Israel to look for a solution through discussion, he said. He however feared that the conflict between two groups within Palestine is hampering the talks. There are severe clashes between the Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah in the West Bank. Sisi said that in order to have a successful peace talk between the nations, these two groups need to be together.

In the past few months there have been very genuine efforts from the western countries to start peace talks between Israel and Palestine. American Foreign Minister John Kerry had even proposed a discussion with the leaders of the two countries. The European Union as well as France had invited Israel and Palestine for negotiations. However Western countries had demanded that Israel stops construction of the settlement units in the West Bank. Meanwhile, the President of Palestine stated that it is not possible to have a discussion with Netanyahu government. As a result, the negotiations have come to a standstill.

On this background, the current development that the Russian President Vladimir Putin willing to mediate for Israel-Palestine peace talks is very significant.