Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Moscow on Tuesday and said Russia was closely monitoring the situation in the Middle East.
“What is happening in the Middle East and in Palestine obviously has our attention,” Putin said, according to Russian news agencies, despite Ukraine’s ongoing incursion into the Kursk border region.
Abbas stressed the Palestinian Authority’s close ties with Russia, which he said has long supported the Palestinian cause.
“We believe in you, we trust you and we feel your support,” he added.
Putin, meanwhile, reiterated that Moscow supports a fully sovereign Palestinian state.
“To create a lasting, reliable and stable peace in the region, all UN resolutions must be complied with and, above all, a fully sovereign Palestine must be created,” he said.
Abbas, 88, who heads the secular Fatah organization and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, has lost much of his popular support after failing to prevent violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.
In 2006, Fatah lost power over the Gaza Strip to the radical Islamist group Hamas and was forcibly expelled from the coastal region.
The two rival movements, along with other Palestinian groups, recently signed a declaration on Palestinian unity under Chinese auspices. The aim is to establish a unified government, Palestinian media reported.
According to Russian media, the country is one of the few world powers that strives for Palestinian unity.
