RUSSIA: ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN COALITION OF PEACE REPRESENTATIVES MEET WITH RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IGOR IVANOV IN MOSCOW

Record ID: 350409

  • Title: RUSSIA: ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN COALITION OF PEACE REPRESENTATIVES MEET WITH RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IGOR IVANOV IN MOSCOW
  • Date: 26th February 2002
  • Summary: (U4) MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FEBRUARY 26, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. WS: RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IGOR IVANOV ESCORTS ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN DELEGATIONS INTO PRESS HALL 0.12 2. SCU: IGOR IVANOV 0.21 3. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PALESTINIAN MINISTER OF CULTURE AND INFORMATION, YASSER ABED RABBO, SAYING "We want to say to public opinion in both nations of
  • Embargoed: 13th March 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVAETWO1YQEKDM3MGCXRPGSO49JD
  • Story Text: Israeli and Palestinian representatives from the Coalition for
    Peace have met with Russia's Foreign Minister in
    Moscow to appeal for international support in a peace process
    that seems to have gained some momentum from a recent Saudi
    Arabian proposal.


    The Israeli-Palestinian Coalition for Peace which
    visited Russia on Tuesday (February 26) was headed by
    Palestinian Minister of Culture and Information Yasser Abed
    Rabbo and former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin.

    The delegates thanked Russia for its participation in
    peace talks and urged the international community to support
    peace initiatives for the troubled region.

    "We want to say to public opinion in both nations of
    Palestine and Israel that there is a way out, there is a
    concrete plan that will help us to achieve peace in Jerusalem
    and peace between the two sides," said Rabbo.

    "We are not going to fight against each other and prove to
    you that Yasser Abed Rabbo is wrong
    and Yossi Beilin is right or vice versa. We don't want to be
    right - we want to have peace," said Beilin.

    A current Saudi initiative has received warm responses
    from both Israeli and Palestinian government officials.

    The plan, floated by the kingdom's de facto ruler in a
    peacemaking void, calls on Arab states to recognise Israel and
    normalise relations with it in return for a full Israeli
    withdrawal from lands occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

    The initiative has been gaining international momentum in
    the face of violence in which at least 892 Palestinians and
    277 Israelis have been killed since September 2000.

    Israel has accepted the principle of land-for-peace in
    negotiations with the Palestinians, but has said it will never
    return to pre-1967 lines, borders that it considers dangerous
    to its security.

    In the latest bloodletting, two Palestinians and two
    Israelis were killed in the West Bank on Monday (February 25).

    Two pregnant women, one an Israeli and one a Palestinian, were
    wounded but survived and later gave birth.

    An Israeli policewoman died from her wounds overnight in a
    Jerusalem hospital after she was shot trying to prevent an
    attack by a Palestinian gunman in which 10 Israelis were hurt.

    The killings ended a four-day lull and followed a week of
    the most sustained violence since the Palestinian uprising
    against Israeli occupation began.

    Rabbo and Beilin are to continue their talks and meet with
    EU foreign affairs official Javier Solana in Jerusalem on
    Wednesday (February 27).
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register