Moscow stresses its “unshakable path towards a fair agreement” between Israelis and Palestinians
June 16 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Russian authorities have announced this Friday that they will open a new office of the consular section of their Embassy in Israel in Jerusalem, following an agreement with the Mayor’s Office on land purchased by Russia in 1885 in the western part of the city.
The Russian Embassy has indicated in a statement that the agreement was signed on May 18 and has detailed that it includes a protocol “clarifying the borders and area of a Russian land in West Jerusalem”, before specifying that it took place “after a process of several years initiated by the Russian Foreign Ministry”.
“We start from the basis that this property will be used for the construction of a complex of buildings and structures that will be used for the needs of a branch of the consular section of the Russian Embassy in Israel,” he pointed out, without revealing a possible date. opening.
“We believe that this step benefits the interests of further strengthening the friendly and multifaceted relations between Russia and Israel,” he said, while stressing that “it is in line with (Russia’s) unshakable path towards a fair agreement in the Middle East”.
The opening of diplomatic legations in Jerusalem is a source of criticism by the Palestinian Authority, since East Jerusalem has been occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War and issues relating to the status of the city are considered to be linked to the process of peace negotiations.
The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state that should be built on pre-1967 war borders, even though Israeli authorities claim that Jerusalem is the country’s “indivisible” capital, something that has strained bilateral relations for the last years.
Tensions around this issue rose after then-President of the United States Donald Trump announced in 2018 that he recognized the city as the capital of Israel and moved the US Embassy there, a decision that sparked harsh criticism from the Palestinian Authority and was rejected. in a vote in the United Nations General Assembly.
