Foreign Minister Lavrov: Thank you very much, Mr. President. It gives me great pleasure to be here again and to have this opportunity to hold intense and useful talks with you. We are sincerely interested in overcoming the present crisis in Gaza, in strengthening the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and restarting the peace process. The message from President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev to PNA President Abbas, which I today had the honor of conveying, is all about this.

People in Russia deeply regretted the Gaza tragedy and exerted efforts at the highest level to stop the bloodshed. And now too we are going to do everything we can together with our other partners to ensure that the violence will never recur again. We actively support the efforts aimed at the impeccable fulfillment of UN Security Council resolution 1860 – it presupposes the establishment of a durable truce, solution of other practical matters and provision of supplies to Gaza. We are going to consistently work towards an early resumption of the peace process. Mr. President has already said what is needed for that, which is that the sides ought to continue doing everything to implement the Roadmap, and this presupposes ceasing the violence and ending settlement activities simultaneously. The conditions for movement forward will be established this way. In the coming days and weeks together with our Quartet partners, together with Arab states and, of course, together with the Palestinian and Israeli representatives we will be preparing the conditions for convening a Moscow conference. Support for this forum is practically universal and I am convinced that by joint efforts we will be able to ensure its joint holding, relaunching the peace process, which, of course, suffered as a result of the crisis in Gaza.

Russia actively supports the Egypt-led efforts to restore Palestinian unity on the basis of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s platform, on the basis of the peace initiative, and we are also undertaking practical steps on our part in support of these efforts on a practical plane. We will take an active part in the conference to reconstruct Gaza to be held in Cairo on March 2. We will continue to further support not only Gaza, but also the Palestinian National Authority led by Abbas, particularly in strengthening PNA state structures and security forces.

We highly value our engagement with the partners on the Russian presence in the Holy Land and want to develop economic cooperation with Palestine more actively. The recently established Russian-Palestinian Business Council is likely to be helpful in this matter. I wish to thank you, Mr. President, once again for the hospitality and close cooperation.

Question: From the results of your meeting today with Benjamin Netanyahu, how much his position will change if it is he who will form Israel’s government after all, do you think?

Foreign Minister Lavrov: In Israel I met with the country’s President Shimon Peres and with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and with head of Israel’s foreign affairs agency Tzipi Livni and with Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. I can say that they all voiced their commitment to the peace process and said that they understood the necessity of creating the conditions for the peace process to be resumed. And yet it is hardly reasonable to hazard guesses as to what practical steps Israel’s new government will take, because it is not yet formed.

Question: Can it be said that Russia halted its contacts with Hamas?

Foreign Minister Lavrov: Russia did not halt contacts with Hamas. Time and the course of events have shown that we acted correctly when we established such contacts. There are more and more of those now who previously were categorically against those contacts. In this case I mean primarily those who abroad opposed them, but are now beginning to realize the counterproductiveness of the policy aimed at isolating Hamas. Our contacts aim to urge Hamas to forge Palestinian unity on the platform of the Palestine Liberation Organization, on the platform of the Arab Peace Initiative. And these contacts are continuing right now in order to ensure success of the meeting that is planned in Egypt. President Abbas has set out the approach of the PNA leadership toward efforts to restore Palestinian unity. We consider this approach responsible; that is, based on a sense of responsibility for the fate of the Palestinian people, and we hope that Hamas and all other participants in the upcoming event in Cairo will show a similar responsible and constructive approach.