Abbas urges Middle East conference in Moscow
Foreign Desk Report

MOSCOW—Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas called on Thursday for a Middle East peace conference in Moscow “as soon as possible,” saying this was needed to spur talks with Israel that were moving too slowly.
“We want the Moscow conference to be held as soon as possible and we hope it will succeed in pushing the peace process forward,” Abbas said in a lecture to Moscow university students.
Confirming that discussions were still under way on a date, Abbas said a new impetus was needed to follow up a conference last November hosted by US President George W. Bush in Annapolis, Maryland.
“I regret to say that there are obstacles hindering the application of what was agreed upon in Annapolis,” said Abbas, whose visit was intended to lay the ground for the new conference. “The negotiations are not advancing at the required pace or yielding the progress necessary for us to reach the agreed objectives by the agreed dates.”
Palestinian officials have mentioned June as a possible date for the conference but Russia’s foreign ministry confirmed that the timing had not been finalised, Interfax news agency reported. Abbas is to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
At the Annapolis meeting, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert formally restarted negotiations after a seven-year freeze in the peace process, aiming to conclude a comprehensive agreement by the end of 2008 — just before Bush leaves office.
But the negotiations have been weighed down, notably by violence in Gaza and Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories. On Wednesday in Gaza three Israeli soldiers and 18 Palestinians, one a cameraman for an international news agency, were killed in clashes near the border with Israel.
Abbas again called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, saying that Egypt was helping broker a deal between the parties. Russia’s foreign ministry also called for a ceasefire and said it would do what it could to help.
“It’s necessary to make every effort to bring about a calming of the situation and a complete ceasefire. “Moscow affirms its readiness to help a Palestinian-Israeli resolution and talks between the commonly recognised Palestinian leader, Mahmud Abbas, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The United States has also been discussing the proposed conference, notably during a visit to Moscow by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month. Abbas is due to meet Bush next week in Washington. Last week Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said details of the event were being worked out and that it would give a “second wind” to the Annapolis process.
Unlike the European Union and the United States, Russia has maintained contacts with the Hamas Palestinian radical organisation, viewed as a terrorist group by the West.
Putin, who was due back in Moscow on Friday after visiting Libya, is to hand over to president-elect Dmitry Medvedev on May 7. In an interview with the Russian daily Kommersant, the Palestinian president’s envoy to Moscow, Faed Moustafa, said he was sure Medvedev would continue supporting the Palestinians, also through contacts with Hamas. “Mahmud Abbas is sure that Russia will use its contacts with Hamas for one purpose: to restore the unity of the Palestinian people,” Moustafa said.
Thousands of Palestinians marched through Gaza City on Thursday at the funeral procession of a cameraman killed while covering a day of fighting that killed 20 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers.
Three Gaza militants who tried to carry out a new attack on a border crossing were stopped by Israeli troops, the army said. One attacker was killed, another was wounded and a third fled the scene, the army said. Kerem Shalom, a crossing used to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza, was closed after the attack.
Israel has limited the flow of goods into Gaza since the Hamas militant group seized control of the area last June, and tightened the blockade in recent weeks following intensified rocket attacks from Gaza.