Russia, Egypt urge meeting of Mideast Quartet

MOSCOW, May 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Egypt are in favor of a meeting of the Middle East Quartet being held in the near future and for renewed efforts in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, the Russian foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"Our general position is to create conditions for the soonest resumption in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, and not with a clean sheet either, but based on existing agreements," Sergei Lavrov said following a meeting in Moscow with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheit.

Russia, along with the UN, the U.S. and European Union, comprises part of the Middle East Quartet of intermediaries which is actively seeking ways to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, launched after a peace conference hosted by then U.S. president George Bush in November 2007, stalled following an Israeli offensive on Gaza in December which left 1,300 Palestinians dead and 5,000 others injured.

The tragic events in Gaza pushed the conflicting Palestinian groups to seek dialogue in order to form a single government.

The top Russian diplomat said that the success of the negotiations hang on whether the Palestinian political groups can reach a consensus.

"We strongly support Egypt's constant efforts aimed at restoring Palestinian unity based on the Palestine Liberation Organization. Much depends on this to ensure the deadlocked peace process has any chance," he said.

The Hamas and Fatah movements, the largest political organizations, split in June 2007 when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip and pushed the Fatah movement out of the enclave of 1.5 million. Hamas has since remained in power in Gaza, independent of the officially recognized government of Fatah in the West Bank, which is headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

However, Western-backed Abbas excluded Hamas on Tuesday, when he formed a new cabinet, which will be led by Salam al Fayyad with around half its members chosen from among Fatah party members.