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Russian officials have responded with restraint to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. However, the Russian side intends to participate in the negotiation process: as the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova reported on October 8, on October 9 in Moscow Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will hold negotiations with the Secretary General of the League of Arab States (LAS) Ahmed Abu al-Gheit: “Russia and The Arab League has a busy agenda, but given the dramatic escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict, this topic will be given priority attention.”

Hamas from the Gaza Strip began shelling Israel early on Saturday morning, October 7.

At about 10.00 Moscow time, the special representative of the Russian President for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Bogdanov said that Russia is in contact with Israel, Palestine, as well as Arab countries in connection with the aggravation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “We are in contact with everyone now. With Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs. Now we will find out all the circumstances, understand everything,” he told Interfax. According to the deputy minister, “of course, we always call for restraint.” “We need to understand what is happening, why, and what the consequences will be,” he emphasized.

As Bogdanov said, the escalation of the conflict came as a surprise to Moscow. “Yes, this is such an unexpected aggravation. If we had expected this, we would not have allowed this,” he noted.

“We have always said that this is a vicious circle of violence. Instead of reaching an agreement on a mutually acceptable basis and taking into account international law, the parties begin to relapse into violence. Nobody deals with the political horizon. This is the most important thing,” Bogdanov concluded.

Around noon on October 7, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev in his Telegram channel blamed the West and the United States for the escalation of the conflict. “The start of fighting between Hamas and Israel on the 50th anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur War is an event that could have been expected. This is what Washington and its allies had to do. The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been going on for decades. And the United States is a key player there,” he said.

After 14.00, Zakharova, on behalf of the Foreign Ministry, expressed “the most serious concern” about the sharp deterioration of the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone. “We call on the Palestinian and Israeli sides for an immediate ceasefire, renunciation of violence, showing the necessary restraint and establishing, with the assistance of the international community, a negotiation process aimed at establishing a comprehensive, lasting and long-awaited peace in the Middle East,” Zakharova said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, she continued, regards the current large-scale escalation of the situation “as another extremely dangerous manifestation of a vicious circle of violence, which is a direct consequence of the chronic failure to comply with the relevant resolutions of the UN and its Security Council and the actual blocking by the West of the work of the Middle East “quartet” of international mediators consisting of Russia and the United States , EU and UN”.

In this regard, Moscow confirmed “the principled and consistent position that this conflict, which has been dragging on for 75 years, has no forceful solution and can be resolved exclusively by political and diplomatic means, through the establishment of a full-fledged negotiation process on a well-known international legal basis , providing for the creation of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with its capital in East Jerusalem, living in peace and security with Israel.”

By evening, a message appeared on the Foreign Ministry website about Lavrov’s telephone conversation with his Egyptian colleague Sameh Shukry on Saturday. “The ministers were unanimous in the need to immediately stop hostilities and establish a Palestinian-Israeli negotiation process in accordance with international law and existing decisions of the UN and its Security Council,” the department said in a statement on its website. Lavrov recalled the recent “Russian initiative proposals to intensify the consolidated efforts of interested parties in the interests of the speedy achievement of a fair and reliable Palestinian-Israeli political settlement according to a two-state formula,” the Foreign Ministry website said.

State Duma deputies interviewed by Vedomosti, including those from the International Affairs Committee, did not comment on the military conflict, and also did not answer the question of whether the lower house would adopt any statement or resolution on this matter. The Duma Council, where plans for the coming week are discussed, will be held on October 9.

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2023-10-08 22:00:53