Press release on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s telephone conversations with Foreign Minister of the State of Israel Eli Cohen and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine Riyad al-Maliki

On January 28 and 29, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had telephone conversations with Foreign Minister of Israel Eli Cohen, and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine Riyad al-Maliki. The Russian Foreign Minister expressed his condolences to his colleagues over the deaths and injuries of civilians as a result of the recent escalation.

Mr Lavrov stressed that Moscow was seriously concerned about a new spiral of violence in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which could lead to a renewed full-fledged armed confrontation causing more casualties and destruction. The Minister called on his Israeli and Palestinian partners to show maximum responsibility and refrain from any actions that could provoke a further degradation of the situation.

There was a frank and involved exchange of views on the prospects of the situation in the Middle East with an emphasis on the Palestinian-Israeli settlement. Sergey Lavrov emphasised the urgent need to resume the efforts of the Quartet of international mediators in order to restart the negotiating process between Israel and Palestine as soon as possible on a universally recognised international legal basis.

The ministers also discussed a number of topical issues on the bilateral agenda. They reaffirmed their willingness to develop mutually beneficial and multifaceted cooperation between the countries.