"Abbas has accepted the Russian offer and informed the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov on his agreement, but Netanyahu has retreated after he admitted it last month," Ahmad Tibi said during a meeting with Konstantin Kosachev, the head of Foreign Affairs Committee in the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, in Moscow.
Tibi applauded Moscow endeavor to arrange a meeting between leaders of the conflicting sides, saying: "we appreciate the Russian efforts on this issue."
Ahmad Tibi represents the Arab Joint List, a political alliance of four Arab-dominated opposition parties in the Knesset. He is the head of the Arab Movement for Change party and one of ten deputy speakers in the Israeli legislative body.
In late September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference following his address to the UN General Assembly that Moscow continued working with both Israel and Palestine to resume negotiations, noting that the parties were not equally eager to consider the initiative.
