By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will discuss plans for a Middle East peace conference to be held in Moscow when he visits the Russian capital later this week, the Palestinian embassy said on Monday.
“Abbas will arrive in Moscow on April 16 on a three-day visit,” an embassy official said.
As well as the conference slated for mid-June, Abbas will discuss the Palestinian Authority’s relations with Russia, and the Middle East peace process as a whole during talks with Russian leaders, the official said.
Russia is involved in the Mideast peace process as a party to the Quartet of mediators along with the United States, the United Nations and the European Union.
Moscow’s plans to host a peace conference, a follow-up to last November’s talks in Annapolis, U.S., have received the backing of several Mideast states including Syria.
Syria’s deputy foreign minister told reporters in Damascus on Monday: “We cannot ignore any international meeting that will discuss our problems, and from all indications the upcoming meetings, especially the Moscow conference, will open the way to a real settlement along all lines of the Middle East peace process,” Faisal al Mekdad said.
Since November Russia has urged Mideast states to implement agreements reached in Annapolis and to try to prevent unilateral measures.
The Middle East Quartet is set to gather on April 17 in Amman, the capital of Jordan.