Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet on Monday with the leaders of the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas movements to discuss plans for the recognition of a Palestinian state.
The leaders of Fatah, Hamas, the People’s and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the head of the Palestinian People’s Party, Al-Shaab, arrived in Moscow last Friday.
Fatah and Hamas signed a peace deal in Cairo on May 4, ending a four-year split between the two factions that opened when Hamas ousted Fatah forces from Gaza in 2007.
According to the agreement, Hamas and Fatah will form a technocratic government to unify national institutions on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and prepare for national elections within a year.
Israeli authorities denounced the peace deal between Hamas and Fatah and threatened sanctions, calling on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to choose between peace with the “terrorist organization,” Hamas, or Israel.
MOSCOW, May 23 (RIA Novosti)