STATEMENT BY ALEXANDER YAKOVENKO, THE OFFICIAL SPOKESMAN OF RUSSIA'S MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS REGARDING TERRORIST ACT IN ISRAEL
Unofficial translation from Russian
STATEMENT BY ALEXANDER YAKOVENKO, THE OFFICIAL SPOKESMAN OF RUSSIA'S MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Regarding Terrorist Act in Israel
Yet another terrorist act was committed this morning in Jerusalem. As the result of an explosion of a bus, carried out by a suicide terrorist, 19 people were killed, and dozens more wounded.
Moscow strongly condemns this new crime and expresses deeply-felt condolences to the people and government of Israel.
Such acts by fanatics are aimed at thwarting the efforts of the international community to restore the peace process, which is the sole realistic way to overcoming the present crisis. Thus, terrorists and their accomplices are acting directly against the interests of the Palestinian people, against its desire to establish a lasting and just peace in the Middle East.
We have noted the condemnation by the Palestinian leadership of this criminal act and expect the Palestinian National Authority to take effective measures to suppress the activity of terrorists.
Recognizing the lawful right of Israel to self-defense, we are calling upon its leadership to exercise restraint and not to allow terrorists to provoke another spiral of Palestinian-Israeli confrontation.
In the present complicated situation it is important also that the directly involved parties should refrain from unilateral actions which do not fit into the logic of actions of the international community, aimed at restarting the talks between the Israelis and Palestinians on the elaboration of a final status of the Palestinian territories. It is from this angle that we regard the erection of a system of protective installations in the West Bank (so called electronic fence) begun by Israel on June 16.
The start of the construction of this protective system appears not so much as a measure of physical defense of Israel's territories as the putting up of new political and psychological barriers between the two peoples and as an attempt to predetermine in advance the parameters of future agreements between the Israelis and Palestinians on the territorial question.
In this connection we would like to reaffirm that Russia stands for the attainment of a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict through negotiation, on the basis of UN SC resolutions 242 and 338, and the "land for peace" formula, as well as UN SC resolution 1397 presupposing the peaceful coexistence of two states, Israel and Palestine, within secure and recognized borders.
June 18, 2002