Palestinian Fatah supporters wave party flags during a rally marking the 14th anniversary for the death of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in Gaza City on Nov. 20, 2018. (Xinhua/Stringer)
MOSCOW, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Russia proposes organizing a meeting between Fatah and Hamas next year and a meeting of Palestinian and Israeli leaders whenever the parties are ready, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.
"We see the desire of some external players to push the Palestinian problem into the background, depriving it of priority in regional affairs," Lavrov said at a joint press conference here following talks with his Palestinian counterpart Riad Malki.
To counter such attempts, the speediest restoration of Palestinian unity is of particular importance, he said.
During Friday's talks, Lavrov recalled that an intra-Palestinian dialogue was held in 2017. Participants in the meeting discussed the possibility of repeating this practice in 2019 with the participation of all Palestinian forces, including Fatah and Hamas.
In October 2017, Palestinian rival movements Fatah and Hamas signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo to end their long-time rift, agreeing on a complete handover of Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to Fatah by Dec. 1 and to enable the consensus government under Fatah to have full control of the enclave.
However, the deal has not been implemented so far, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Fatah in the West Bank are trading accusations on who is responsible for the delay.
As for Palestine-Israel ties, Lavrov said that he and Malki expressed serious concerns about the deterioration of relations between the Palestinians and Israelis.
In this respect, he said that the Russian initiative to hold a meeting of the leaders of Palestine and Israel in Moscow without preconditions is still relevant considering the complexity of accumulated problems.
Malki said that the Palestinian side is always ready to accept the Russian invitation to hold a meeting with Israelis.
The Israelis do not rule out in principle the possibility of a meeting, but they are not yet ready to agree on a concrete date because of the absence of unity between the Palestinians, Lavrov said.