Russia wants sanctions lifted on Palestine

In a move which many of us saw coming, Russia are preparing to break away from the rest of the Quartet and call for the new Palestinian unity government to be recognised and for sanctions against the Palestinians to be lifted.

"Russia favors the agreement between Hamas and the Fatah group to share power because it shows wisdom, reason and responsibility before the Palestinian people," Sergey Lavrov said before a meeting with the head of Hamas' political bureau, Khaled Meshal.

"We are pushing for all members of the international community to support this process and make it irreversible, including efforts to lift the blockade," Lavrov added.

This eminently sensible proposal will now come under attack from the US and Israel who are determined not to recognise the new Palestinian unity government until it "recognises Israel", a totally bizarre concept as Israel herself refuses to state what she regards as her national borders.

Nor is support for this new government limited merely to the Russians.

French President Jacques Chirac has said he would ask the EU, at a summit in March, to support plans for a unity government.

So it would appear that Bush and his pro-Likud cohorts are not going to find it easy to keep the rest of the Quartet on board as they attempt to starve the Palestinians into submission.

Meshal's Moscow visit reflected the Kremlin's position that negotiations - rather than sanctions - are the best way to deal with Hamas. Russia, which has been clamoring for a greater role in the Middle East, has been more positive about the unity government plan than Washington and the European Union.

"The Russian leadership supported forming such government from the very start," Lavrov said. "We have consistently backed specific steps which helped make this process successful, and we shall continue acting like that."

"The Mecca meeting was also important because it opened the way toward the resumption of the peace process between the Palestinians and Israel," he added.

Of course, a resumption of the peace process is the very thing that Olmert is striding to avoid, so it will be interesting to watch how he approaches things from here on in. He can be guaranteed that the US will remain on board, demanding that Hamas recognise Israel and embrace their other demands before sanctions can be lifted, but he is now losing the support of Russia and parts of Europe.

Russia has long wanted a larger role in sorting out this dispute and Condi's recent visit, with it's declaration that both sides want the US to act as mediator, was palpable nonsense.

The US wants to help Israel get the best deal she can, she is no more a mediator than I am a ballerina.

I really hope Russia and France see this through and have some success in having the sanctions lifted. Or, at the very least, refusing to have both their nations take part in any continuation of this foul scandal where we are imposing sanctions on the occupied people rather than on the occupier.

Especially as those sanctions are being imposed because we disagree with the democratic choice the Palestinian people made. That we can do such a thing at the very time that we claim to be wishing to export democracy to the region is simply hypocrisy on a grand scale.

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Tags: Russia, Palestine, sanctions, US, Israel, Hamas