Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki will visit Russia on December 8-10 in order to ask the Russian authorities to support Palestine's independence initiative, local radio reported.
In mid-November, the Palestinian authorities said they were preparing to ask the UN Security Council to endorse the independent Palestinian state and announced their plans to seek for support of "Arab states, Europe, Russia, China and other international groups."
"The main goal of the visit is the discussions on the political situation in the region, where the peace process has come to a standstill due to Israel's obstinacy regarding the issue of settlement [construction] in the West Bank and in Jerusalem," al-Maliki, who is expected to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during his stay in Moscow, said.
The issue of Jewish outposts construction in the West Bank is the main obstacle to reviving peace talks with the Palestinians, and a sticking point in relations with the United States, Israel's main strategic ally.
"We will ask Russia to support our intention to apply to the UN Security Council a resolution for the recognition of the independence of the Palestinian state" in its June 1967 borders, the Palestinian top official said.
He added he will also ask Russia to call for the United Nations, the European Union and the U.S. to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by putting consolidate pressure upon Israel.
Nimer Hammad, advisor to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, said earlier Palestine will only address the UN "when proper guarantees will be given" to provide success of the initiative.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the move by the Palestinian authorities and insisted on negotiations toward a full peace accord. He warned Israel would retaliate to any unilateral Palestinian steps.
In late November, Netanyahu proposed the Palestinians to "make peace together" and announced that settlement construction would be limited in the occupied West Bank, adding it would resume in the future. Construction would continue in East Jerusalem, he said.
However, the Palestinians have said the offer does not go far enough and claimed "any return to negotiations must be on the basis of a complete settlement freeze."
The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Some half a million Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both of which have been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
The Palestinian foreign minister will visit Moscow a week after Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's visite to the Russian capital.
GAZA STRIP, December 6 (RIA Novosti)
