The message concerns continuation of the peace process following the completion of the withdrawal of Israeli settlements and military infrastructure from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The message reads, in particular:
“The task now is not to wait too long before pursuing the peace process otherwise the positive dynamic that has now been reached with such hard work could be lost. Israel’s withdrawal from part of the Palestinian territories is a prologue to implementing the ‘Road Map’ for a Middle East peace settlement and the return of all the Palestinian territories.”
Mr Putin said he was sure that continued negotiations between the Palestinian National Authority and Israel, with energetic support from the international community, would ultimately settle what for the Palestinians is the key objective of creating a viable, territorially continuous and sovereign democratic state living with Israel side by side in peace and security.
The President expressed a number of views on further development of the situation: Russia will continue to actively assist the Palestinian-Israeli settlement process both through bilateral contacts and through the work of the ‘Quartet’. Likewise, the proposal still holds to organise an international high-level expert meeting in Moscow on the Middle East at which it would be possible to analyse the situation in the context of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, discuss the next steps to take to implement the ‘Road Map’ and look at renewing the activity of multilateral working groups working on the peace process.