http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11283899&PageNum=0
Palestine hopes Russia will help lift blockade--Mashaal 26.02.2007, 10.50 MOSCOW, February 26 (Itar-Tass) - Palestine hopes Russia will help lift the blockade of the Palestinian people, Head of the Political Bureau of the Hamas Movement Khaled Mashaal stated here on Monday. He heads the Palestinian delegation, which came to the Russian capital for consultations. “We appreciate Russia’s role very highly. This role is very important,” he stressed. “We hope Russia will be able to persuade the international community to lift the blockade, clamped down on the people of Palestine,” Mashaal added. “The Hamas representatives appreciate Russia’s stand and are planning to discuss in Moscow the Fatah-Hamas agreements, reached in Mecca,” Mashaal noted. “These agreements are a very important step, which should put an end to the blockade. We hope the Arab nations will back us. It is necessary to guarantee a political atmosphere, contributing to the establishment of a Palestinian State. Pressure should be brought to bear on Israel to make Tel Aviv recognise the right of the Palestinians to build up their own state,” he stressed. Mashaal called on the international “Quartet” to conduct negotiations with Israel. “At present, Israel is occupying Palestinian lands and the people of Palestine lack their own state. The ‘Quartet’ should negotiate with Israel, not with us,” Mashaal believes. He hopes the “Quartet” will not alter its stand. “All the sides should respect the Mecca agreements,” the Hamas leader stated. “These accords are a very important step, which should put an end to the blockade. I hope the Arab nations will back us,” he noted. Mashaal spoke highly about Russia’s backing. “Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s statement in Berlin was important for us,” he added. Lavrov had earlier said that “ways to settle all these problems should be found by means of negotiations”. “We deem it necessary to strengthen the agreements, reached in Mecca between Head of the Palestine National Administration Mahmoud Abbas and the Leader of the Hamas Movement, and to actively help implement them,” the Russian minister stressed. He refuted the allegations that the “Quartet’ had imposed a boycott on the Palestinian government”. “A special meeting was scheduled for March 13, which is to consider the parameters of the mechanism to help the Palestinian government. Therefore, it is wrong to speak of any boycott,” Lavrov said. “Our stand is to encourage the movement to form a new Palestinian government and to strive for an all-embracing peace,” he stressed. The representatives of the Hamas leadership are planning to discuss here also some problems, linked with the coordination of the relations with the Russian leadership. “We are very glad that this is our second visit to Moscow. We would like to discuss here the results of the meeting in Saudi Arabia. We highly appreciate the role of Russia, which respects the stand of the Palestinian people. We are also determined to coordinate our relations with the Russian leadership,” Mashaal stressed. The first visit to Moscow of a Mashaal-led delegation took place on March 3, 2006. The representatives of the Hamas leadership had meetings during that visit with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his deputy Alexander Saltanov. Taking part in the negotiations also was Russian Foreign Minister’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Alexander Kalugin. +++ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Yahoo! Groups gets a make over. 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