Russian Foreign Minister Sides with the Islamic Squatters

Reality check. Until just a few days ago, Russia had a blockade going of its own against the breakaway republic of Georgia. So, am I to assume that gives them the right to tell Israel what to do? What a bunch of hypocrites!

UPDATE: Sergei Lavrov confirms the shipment of up to 50 armored vehicles to Fatah’s security forces.

Russian FM calls for end to Gaza blockade, settlements

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) — Visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday criticized Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and called for an end to the Jewish state’s “unacceptable” blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Following talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Lavrov also said Russia would soon set a date for a proposed peace conference which Moscow wants to host and which he is promoting on his Middle East tour.

“We are worried by the Israeli settlement activity and urge Israel to end it,” Lavrov said at a news conference with Abbas.

Israel had pledged at a US-sponsored conference in November to abide by the 2003 international peace roadmap, which calls for a freeze of settlement activity.

Lavrov also called on Israel to lift the crippling sanctions it imposed on Hamas-run Gaza in January in a bid to end rocket fire from the impoverished Palestinian enclave.

“The blockade imposed against Gaza is unacceptable and it must be ended so the Palestinian people can live normally,” he said.

Lavrov, who earlier travelled to Syria and Israel, has revived proposals for a Moscow gathering as a follow-up to the US November conference in Annapolis, Maryland.

A date for the conference “will be fixed in the near future,” Lavrov said in Ramallah.

Abbas welcomed the announcement.

“We insisted on the need to organise this follow-up in Moscow as soon as possible,” the Palestinian leader said.

Senior Israeli official expressed reservations over the proposal.

“Out of diplomatic courtesy, we didn’t reject the plan, but the truth is, we are not enthusiastic,” the official said, asking not to be named.

“There have been enough international conferences. What is needed is to move forward in direct negotiations with the Palestinian Authority,” he said.

In Washington, a spokesman for Condoleezza Rice confirmed the US secretary of state had discussed Russia’s proposal during her visit to Moscow this week.

“The main objective is to help the ongoing talks to create a positive atmosphere that will allow the peace process to reach a conclusion,” Lavrov said in Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Lavrov also expressed support for Yemeni efforts to heal the deep rift between the moderate Fatah movement led by Abbas, and Hamas, the Islamist movement that seized control of Gaza in a week of violent clashes last June.

Abbas initially said his representatives were heading back after Hamas refused the Yemeni initiative, but made it clear at the news conference they would remain in Sanaa until Saturday.

“We don’t want to talk of a failure, and prefer to wait and see what happens tomorrow,” Abbas said.

The initiative, sponsored by Yemen, calls for a return to the political status quo that existed before Hamas seized control of the impoverished Gaza Strip in June, routing forces loyal to Abbas.

In Damascus, Lavrov had met Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal and stressed reconciliation between the Palestinian arch-foes was key to solving the Middle East conflict.

Abbas, meanwhile said he discussed with Lavrov his plans to travel to Moscow for talks with outgoing President Vladimir Putin, who officially hands over to Dmitri Medvedev on May 7.

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