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Russia Positive on Results of Mideast Talks in Sharm El Sheikh
Russia set a positive value on the outcome of the multi-party summit on the recent Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which ended Tuesday in Egypt's sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh with a doubtful ceasefire pact between the two sides.
"I don't consider Sharm El Sheikh talks a failure," Russian President Vladimir Putin told an Interfax reporter, who asked Putin "how to view the failure of the Middle East talks in Sharm el-Sheikh."
"I would not call those talks a failure... It is wrong to say that the talks have ended in nothing. Any efforts aimed at achieving peace and accord, at avoiding victims are always useful," Putin told the reporter Tuesday in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, where he is taking a brief vacation.
The president said that the level of confrontation has been lowered and an attempt was made to look for ways out of the bloody conflict. He praised the organizers of the summit for "political, personal and civil courage."
"The Sharm El Sheikh summit has attained maximum possible results, which could be achieved at the present stage," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told the press in Moscow Tuesday.
Russia is ready to make its contribution to the stabilization of the situation in the Middle East and to the resolution of the problems there, he stressed.
"It is important that the sides fully observe the agreements achieved in Sharm El Sheikh and, above all, do everything possible to stop the violence," Ivanov noted.
The Sharm El Sheikh agreement cannot achieve a full normalization of the situation in the Palestinian lands and in the Middle East as a whole. Active efforts will be required on the part of the co-sponsors, the U.N. and all those who want to contribute to the Middle East peace process, he remarked.
At the same time, he said he is not planning to visit the Middle East countries. The necessity for such a trip will be dictated by the development of the situation in the region.
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