Russia said Monday that rival Palestinian leaders from Fatah and Hamas had further bridged their differences and made progress on the details of a new Palestinian reconciliation accord. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced after talks with visiting Palestinian delegations that Fatah and Hamas representatives had put their names on a new statement detailing the agreement signed in Cairo in early May.
Lavrov said the implementation mechanism was signed on Sunday and approved personally by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. “We have taken another step and agreed a statement that will help implement the Cairo accord,” Lavrov said after talks with Fatah’s Azzam al-Ahmed and Hamas member Mussa Abu Marzuk along with other Palestinian negotiators. “I received a call from Mahmud Abbas … and he thanked me for presenting a venue for this useful meeting,” Russia’s top diplomat added.
Analysts said the Moscow meeting represented one of Russia’s most serious interventions in the stalled Middle East peace process in recent years. And a top Palestinian negotiator said the talks essentially made Russia a co-sponsor of the Palestinian reconciliation process.
