Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's comment on the West's reckless approach to the Middle East settlement process
20 February 2023 16:15
310-20-02-2023
Judging by incoming reports, the West continues with its reckless ways as it seeks to "rebuild" the Middle East. The material published in France's Le Figaro has come to our attention. It says that under the pretext of reinvigorating the role of Paris in the Middle East settlement process, the French leadership has instructed high-ranking officials of the country's diplomatic service and intelligence agencies to select a candidate to replace the current President of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas. Elysee Palace decided to go down the path of regime change in Palestine, seeing this manipulation almost as a panacea for achieving a Palestinian-Israeli settlement. We are convinced that such mental constructions reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of regional realities.
Meanwhile, we are hearing more and more about the plans of France, a number of other European countries and EU officials to build a collective format, the functions of which will replace the only legitimate diplomatic support mechanism for the Middle East settlement process, which is the Middle East Quartet of international mediators (Russia, the United States, the EU and the UN) which was approved by the UN Security Council decisions.
These ploys show that Paris and other European capitals for that matter are reluctant to learn from their own mistakes and prefer to continue the destructive course towards further destabilisation of the Middle East.
The efforts of the Europeans who are diligently copying the military-political methods used by the United States have come under fire in the region. Everyone remembers only too well the consequences of reckless operations in Iraq and Libya which led to millions of victims, untold human suffering, migration and humanitarian crises, territorial fragmentation of these countries, the undermining of statehood there, a sharp deterioration in the security situation and a surge in terrorism in the region. Only the Russian military operation against ISIS in Syria prevented chaos in that Arab country.
If Western players are genuinely interested in improving the situation around the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and resuming the peace process, then instead of high-profile statements to cover up their experiments to remove objectionable leaders, they would be better off starting with recognition of the State of Palestine, helping the Palestinians achieve national reconciliation and making efforts to implement the earlier adopted international decisions on this matter, including the two-state principle for a settlement, as well as providing support to the Quartet, which today is blocked by the Americans and Europeans under far-fetched pretexts.
The Russian Federation will continue to interact with the President of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, who is a staunch supporter of a negotiated settlement of the conflict with Israel. No one can make decisions for the Palestinian people. We will continue to help foster the necessary conditions for resetting the political dialogue between the Palestinians and Israelis on a range of final status issues in accordance with the internationally recognised legal framework for the Middle East settlement process, including the Arab Peace Initiative.
In our policy, we rely on friendly relations with the countries of the region that are free from colonial legacy. Even in the current geopolitical realities, Russia persistently calls for restoring the work of the Quartet, which would help to significantly stabilise the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation area and to encourage the opposing parties to return to the negotiating table.
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