By Xinhua
Ramallah : The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Wednesday considered an upcoming Middle East peace conference, hosted by Russia, as a way to save peace talks with Israel.
“We support Russia’s role in the peace process by organizing Moscow conference which was agreed upon” at the U.S.-hosted peace conference of Annapolis last November, said Nabil Shaath, the PNA representative in the conference’s preparation.
Shaath explained that Annapolis conference, in which the PNA and Israel resumed their peace talks, “did not achieve anything so far and the negotiations made no progress and Israel did not fulfill any of its obligations.”
He also agreed that Moscow summit was a sequel to Annapolis conference.
The initial date for the meeting is the middle of June, according to Shaath, who said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will visit Moscow between April 17 and 19 to hold talks with President Vladimir Putin before the latter meets U.S. President George Bush.
The conference will be “purely political,” according to Shaath. Peace talks between Israel and the PNA stopped in the wake of the eruption of the second Palestinian Intifada in 2000. At Annapolis, the two sides renewed the peace negotiations and hoped to reach a deal before the end of this year.