Russia calls for resolving Israeli-Palestinian conflict

MOSCOW

Russia is "very concerned" about the future of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, country's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

“The situation has reached a dead end, some steps are needed to be taken to revitalize the international efforts,” Lavrov said at a meeting with UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolai Mladenov in the capital Moscow.

Lavrov warned that two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is under threat in view of the recent U.S.’s unilateral steps.

"It is very important to ensure the involvement of the international community in efforts to preserve the basis of the settlement, which has been universally accepted, and not to allow collective efforts to be replaced by unilateral steps that erode this base, leading only to the rejection of the establishment of a Palestinian state, the rejection of a two-state solution," the minister said.

Lavrov also said that only UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions along with Madrid proposals and Arab Peace Initiative can be considered as a legal basis for adjustment of Palestinian-Israeli disputes.

Russia will continue making efforts needed to achieve a just solution to the Palestinian problem, which implies the creation of an independent and sovereign state of Palestine within the 1967 borders with the capital in East Jerusalem, he said.