BICOM

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas will meet next week to explore a new mediation mechanism for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Abdel Hafiz Nofal, the Palestinian envoy in Moscow, told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday that new mechanism would seek to replace the Middle East Quartet, established in Madrid in 2002, which is composed of the US, the UN, the EU and Russia. The discussion will take place in the southern Russian city of Sochi on 12 February.

After US President Donald Trump’s Jerusalem announcement, Abbas called Washington a “dishonest mediator” and said the Palestinians are only willing to enter peace talks with Israel if they are held under the auspices of a group of international partners similar to the Iran nuclear deal, where the so-called “P5+1” negotiated the agreement.

The Times of Israel quoted a PA official saying: “We are hoping that Russia and the EU will step in to fill the void. We believe that these countries should and can play a larger role in any peace process in the wake of the Trump administration’s hostile policies toward the Palestinians and bias in favour of Israel.”

Last week Abbas and Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj met Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Russian Federation Security Council and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov to discuss cooperation on security matters, including training exercises.

It is anticipated that Abbas will address the UN Security Council on 20 February, following his visit to Russia. The representative of Kuwait, the alternating president of the Security Council, said that it was important that the Council hear Abbas during their meetings about the Middle East. Reports in Israel yesterday claimed that Abbas will ask the Security Council to recognise the State of Palestine, although the US is likely to veto the proposal.