“The [Russian] foreign minister extended an invitation to the leadership of Hamas to visit Moscow, the movement accepted the invitation”.
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According to the Associated Press, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Sergei Lavrov will confer with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Saudi Foreign Minister Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir during his two-day trip to Doha starting Sunday. Israel’s regional rival, Iran, which has recently strengthened ties to Russian Federation through a mix of political support and weapons sales, may support the move as Tehran looks to strengthen its foothold in the region. The Hamas leader also discussed “Zionist terrorism in the West Bank and its assaults on Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem” with Russia’s top diplomat, the official said.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem arrived in Tehran on Tuesday for talks with officials from Iran and Russian Federation that were expected to focus on efforts to end the civil war. Experts have stated that it will take several years to rebuild Gaza due to the large scale destruction of the area.
“Internally these diplomatic successes may serve to alleviate the likely pressure that Hamas’s military wing is putting on the political echelon regarding the absence of operations against Israel”, explained Michael Horowitz, a security analyst at the Levantine Group.
On November 29, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade Palestine’s status at the UN from “non-member observer entity” to “non-member observer state” despite strong opposition from Israel and the United States. “The Israeli occupation also constitutes an obstacle to a final resolution of the conflict”, he said in the presence of John Kerry.
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“The Middle East suffers from chronic instability due to the repeated failures of peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians”.
