Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his calls for Palestinian statehood in a meeting with Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday.
“We believe that in order to ensure lasting, reliable and stable peace in the region, it’s necessary to… create a full-fledged Palestinian state,” Putin told Abbas at the presidential residence outside Moscow.
He also expressed “great pain and concern” about civilian deaths in Gaza during the Israel-Gaza war.
"We are concerned above all about civilian losses," Putin said, according to images shown on Russian state television, adding: "We are doing everything... to support Palestine and the Palestinian people."
Abbas was scheduled to visit Moscow last November but postponed the trip after the brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas triggered a deadly response by Israel.
Russia has maintained working relations with Israel, with Palestinian authorities and with Hamas, which Moscow does not consider a terrorist organization.
Last month, the Kremlin “strongly condemned” the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniiyeh by an Israeli strike in Iran.
Putin has regularly called for the creation of a Palestinian state as a long-term solution to the conflict in Israel.
AFP contributed reporting.
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