Russia’s Take on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

VLADIMIR CHIZHOV, RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE EUROPEAN UNION: Let me start by saying that Russian has been calling for a more robust and direct involvement of the international Quartet, which is, by the way, the only internationally recognized mechanism of facilitation of the peace process in the Middle East. We were urging that even before the latest flare-up, particularly now. Well, the last statement came from my minister, Sergei Lavrov, only yesterday, when he met the U.N. secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, in Moscow. We decisively condemn all attacks against civilians and attacks against civilian targets. and, of course, against civilian citizens, regardless of their ethnicity or religion. We believe that it is high time the international community, in the form of the Quartet, and the Security Council that has been meeting almost on a 24- hour basis, to play a more decisive role in this. As far as the European Union is concerned, the European Union, may I remind you, is a part of that Quartet, one of the four participants. And I will tell you, this is an issue where our position, the Russian position, and that of the European Union are practically identical.