Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Moscow, saying that Russia is closely observing the situation in the Middle East.
“What is happening in the Middle East, what is happening in Palestine, naturally has our attention,” Putin said, according to Russian news agencies, despite Ukraine’s ongoing incursion into the Kursk border region.
Abbas stressed the Palestinian Authority’s close relations with Russia, which he said has long supported its cause.
“We believe in you, we trust you, we feel your support,” he added.
Putin, meanwhile, reiterated Moscow’s support for a fully sovereign Palestinian state.
“In order to create a lasting, reliable and stable peace in the region, all UN resolutions must be observed and above all a fully sovereign Palestine must be set up,” he said.
The 88-year-old Abbas, who heads the secular Fatah organization and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, has lost considerable popular support after proving unable to prevent violence from Israeli settlers against Palestinians.
Fatah lost control of the Gaza Strip to the radical Islamist group Hamas in 2006 and was violently expelled from the coastal region.
The two rival movements, along with other Palestinian groups, recently signed a declaration on Palestinian unity under Chinese auspices. The aim is to establish a unified government, according to Palestinian media.
Russian media have argued that the country is one of the few world powers working towards Palestinian unity.
