MOSCOW. July 1 (Interfax) - The Palestinian foreign minister hopes that Russia can help overcome a deadlock in the Middle East peace negotiations.
"We believe the situation surrounding the Middle East peace process has reached a deadlock, and Russia's role is to overcome this deadlock situation and stop the Israeli occupation," Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told journalists.
He referred to the "friendly" nature of Russian-Palestinian relations.
"The Russian Federation is the Palestinian people's and the country's leadership's close friend. We are grateful to it for all the efforts it has been making, both on the domestic and on the international front," he said.
"Russia is playing an important political role in the world," al-Maliki said. "It is precisely because we are friends that we are conducting a conference under the UN auspices in support of Palestinian-Israeli peace in Moscow," he said.
Palestine is doing all it can to make sure that all political groups be represented in the Palestine Liberation Organization, he said.
"Palestine's national interest for us is in making sure that all political groups are represented in the Palestine Liberation Organization, including our brothers from Hamas. We are trying to do all we can to achieve unity and not to be separated again," he said.
"This is not easy, this is difficult, but we are doing all in our powers to be successful in this," he said.
It was reported earlier that Moscow hosted an international meeting under the UN aegis in support of peace in the Middle East on Wednesday.
The event, headlined 'The two-state solution: a key prerequisite for achieving peace and stability in the Middle East', was organized by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.