Russia claims US interference in Israeli-Arab relations before peace

Russia accused the United States on Wednesday of promoting Israel’s normalisation of relations with Arab nations and circumventing the Arab Peace Initiative launched by Saudi Arabia in 2002, which calls for a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before any diplomatic recognition of Israel.
The statement by Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia at the U.N. Security Council’s monthly meeting on the Mideast also implicitly criticised Saudi Arabia — without naming it — for moving toward establishing diplomatic relations with Israel while taking “aggressive illegal actions” including an “unprecedented” expansion of settlements on territory that is supposed to be part of an independent Palestinian state.
Nebenzia said U.S. efforts to normalize Arab-Israeli relations at a time that the “de facto” international legal framework for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement is being dismantled not only circumvents the “logic” of the Arab Peace Initiative, but it stymies “any prospects for reviving direct negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis” to achieve peace and a long-sought two-state solution to their decades-old conflict.
The council meeting took place a day after Saudi Arabia’s newly appointed envoy to the Palestinian Authority, Nayef al-Sudairi, made a first trip to the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the 1967 Mideast war. At the same time, Israel’s Tourism Minister Haim Katz led an Israeli delegation to the Saudi capital Riyadh to take part in a conference hosted by the U.N. World Tourism Organization.
Both visits were clearly linked to the recent American efforts to normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Al-Sudairi’s visit was widely seen as an attempt by the kingdom to address the key sticking point in the Saudi-Israeli normalization deal: Saudi Arabia’s stance toward Palestinians.
The Saudi government has said it will only normalize ties with Israel if there is major progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state. Before presenting his credentials to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, al-Sudairi sought to assure the Palestinians that Saudi Arabia was “working to establish a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital,” without elaborating.
Nebenzia pointed to violent attacks including by Israeli settlers, arbitrary arrests, “unprecedented” settlement expansion and Israel’s forced evictions of Palestinian families, confiscation of their property, legalization of settlement outposts and violations of the “status quo” of the holy sites in Jerusalem.Thomas-Greenfield warned that ongoing violence in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza is setting back peace prospects and called on all parties “to refrain from actions and rhetoric that further inflames the tensions.”
The U.S. ambassador expressed alarm at the sharp rise in violence by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinians and warned that the United States opposes settlement building and “takes the issue very seriously, as it undermines the possibility of a future contiguous Palestinian state.”
Tor Wennesland, the U.N. Mideast envoy, reported that in the three months between mid-June and mid-September, 68 Palestinians, including 18 children, were killed and 2,830 were injured by Israeli security forces, while 10 Israelis, including two children, were killed and 122 injured.

RUSSIA ALLEGATION ON USA
Russia alleged that the United States is promoting Israel’s normalization of relations with Arab nations, undermining the Arab Peace Initiative’s call for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement before diplomatic recognition of Israel. Russia criticized Saudi Arabia, without naming it, for moving towards diplomatic relations with Israel while expanding settlements in Palestinian territory, which hinders prospects for peace negotiations.
USA CONCERN ON ISRAEL-PALESTINE SITUATION
The USA expressed support for normalizing relations between Israel and its neighbors while emphasizing the importance of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. The U.S. hoped for a ministerial-level meeting to advance regional integration efforts and called on all parties to refrain from actions that escalate tensions. The USA also voiced concern over violence, settlement building, and extremist attacks.