Palestinian groups start reconciliation talks in Moscow

The Palestinian groups, on Thursday, started a new round of national reconciliation talks in the Russian capital, Moscow, in the presence of Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, Anadolu Agency reports.

Speaking to Anadolu, Bassam Al-Salhi, the Secretary-General of the Palestinian People’s Party, said Lavrov started his speech at the meeting by stressing Russia’s support for the right of the Palestinian people to establish their own independent State on the lands of 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

He also cited Lavrov as confirming his country’s continued efforts to have a ceasefire in Gaza.

According to the Palestinian senior leader, Lavrov considered the US’ “lone sponsorship” of the Palestine-Israel peace process the reason for its failure which led to the deterioration of the situation.

The state of political division has been taking place since 2007, with two entities ruling the Palestinians, one in the West Bank led by the Fatah movement, and the other in Gaza led by the Hamas movement.

Over the past years, several Arab capitals hosted reconciliation talks, but all failed to bring an end to the ongoing political rift.

On 16 February, Russia announced hosting Palestinian groups to hold intra-Palestinian talks on 29 February-2 March.

The talks in Moscow came amid an ongoing Israeli devastating onslaught against Gaza since 7 October, which has, so far, claimed the lives of more than 30,000 Palestinians.

READ: Liberal Democrat leader says UK should impose sanctions on 2 far-right Israeli ministers