Dmitry Medvedev restates Russian support for Palestinian state

On visit to the West Bank, Russian president backs Palestinian demands for Israel to renew freeze on settlement building

guardian.co.uk, Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem, Tuesday 18 January 2011

Dmitry Medvedev and Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town
of Jericho. Photograph: Oliver Weiken/EPA

Dmitry Medvedev today reiterated Russia's endorsement of an independent Palestinian state, amid mounting concern in Israel over a push for wider international recognition.

The Russian president, on a visit to the West Bank, stopped short of explicitly recognising a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders but repeated the position the then Soviet Union adopted in 1988.

"Russia's position remains unchanged," he said. "Russia made its choice a long time ago ... We supported and we will support the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to an independent state with its capital in East Jerusalem."

His comments will boost a Palestinian drive to win recognition of a state based on all territory in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem occupied by Israel in 1967.

In the past two months a string of Latin American countries have recognised a Palestinian state, including Brazil, Argentina and Ecuador. Palestinian officials, frustrated at the stalled peace talks, are considering submitting a resolution on recognition to the UN security council – a move that would be vetoed by the US.

Israel has publicly dismissed the recent spate of endorsements, but some officials are concerned that it reflects growing sympathy for the Palestinian cause. More countries are expected to recognise a Palestinian state ahead of the UN general assembly in September. Israel has warned that a unilateral declaration of statehood would be a harmful step and that a Palestinian state can only be achieved through negotiations.

Medvedev's comments carried additional weight because Russia is a member of the Middle East quartet of peacemakers, which also includes the US, the UN and the European Union. The Russian president backed Palestinian demands that Israel renew a freeze on settlement building before talks can resume.

At a press conference in Jericho with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, Medvedev said: "We discussed the conditions for resuming talks with Israel, which include continued self-control and strictly abiding by commitments and, before anything else, freezing all Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem."

Abbas said: "There are two options, either peace or terror and violence. We shall not choose terror and violence."

The Palestinians claim that continued settlement activity is fast making a viable state impossible. There are around half a million Israelis living in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are illegal under international law.

In 1988 the Soviet Union backed a declaration of statehood by Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, a move that gained little traction outside the Soviet bloc.

The planned Israeli leg of Medvedev's trip fell victim to long-running industrial action by staff at the foreign ministry over pay. As a result, the Russian president entered the West Bank across the historic Allenby bridge from Jordan, which was shut to normal traffic.

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