- OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (IslamOnline.net
& News Agencies) - Showing appreciation for Israel's sympathy and offers
of security assistance, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov however
drew a line between Chechnya and Palestine, making it clear Arab countries
could not be excluded from any alliance against terror.
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- "Chechnya is a part of Russia. But the Palestinian
territories are declared by UN resolutions and international legitimacy
as occupied lands," Lavrov said during a joint press conference with
his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom, according to Al-Jazeera.
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- Also, at a meeting with Israeli President Moshe Katsav,
Lavrov, while agreeing that there could be no justification to terrorism,
insisted at the same time that some of the factors contributing to terrorism,
such as stark economic conditions, should be dealt with.
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- Seemingly challenged, Katsav understood that he was referring
to the Palestinians, and became even more insistent that there was absolutely
nothing that could justify terrorism, reported the Jerusalem Post.
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- Fundamental Differences
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- Citing Israeli diplomatic officials Monday, the paper
said while the school hostage crisis in southern Russia - blamed by Moscow
on Chechen separatists - forged a greater solidarity between Russia and
Israel, it did not erase fundamental policy differences after Lavrov's
visit.
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- Israel has used the hostage crisis in North Ossetia to
reinforce its attempts to link the Palestinians' struggle for independence
from Israeli occupation to what is now being promoted as "world terror".
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- While Israeli prompt sympathies and offers of help paid
off partially - in the form of inking security agreements during Lavrov's
visit to Israelon Monday Israel failed to get Russia to change its historic
relations with countries like Syria and Iran or stances supporting the
Palestinian rights.
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- While showing willingness to work with Israel against
militants, Lavrov made it clear any counter-terrorism alliance would have
to include Arab countries -- in what the Associated Press said was a nod
to Russia's traditional allies in the region.
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- "Terrorism doesn't have any nationalities,"
he said.
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- "I believe the key to the solution of the problem
is to bring all countries to fight terror and I can assure you that in
addition to our very close counterterrorist cooperation with Israel we
have similar counterterrorist cooperation with Arab countries."
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- Pay the Price
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- During a day of meetings, Lavrov heard Israel offer Russia
a wide range of assistance - from medical aid for children suffering post-traumatic
stress disorder, to sending medical teams to the area, dispatching counter-terror
advisers and upgrading intelligence cooperation, according to the Jerusalem
Post.
-
- But Israel, meanwhile, was blunt in demanding the price
for this.
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- According to the Post, Shalom said he told Lavrov that
Israel now expects Russia not to support a Palestinian resolution at the
United Nations on the controversial separation wall, to be discussed at
the United Nations issue later this month, calling for sanctions against
Israel.
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- Russia voted against Israel on the issue before the General
Assembly in July.
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- In the one hour and a half meeting in occupied Jerusalem,
Shalom pointed out that in the last 21 UN votes relating to Israel, Russia
voted against Israel 17 times and abstained on four occasions.
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- Shalom, at the joint press conference with Lavrov, said
that Israel is looking toward the Russian UN delegation "to oppose
the ongoing Palestinian campaign against Israel and to reject their anti-Israeli
initiatives, designed to hurt Israel and divert attention from their own
obligations.
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- "It is clear that the solutions to the Palestinian
issue lie in Ramallah and Gaza, not in New York or The Hague," Shalom
added.
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- Iran, Syria
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- According to Israeli diplomats, cited by the Post, Shalom
failed to get an explicit Russian promise on Moscow halting its nuclear
cooperation with Iran or changing its strategic relations with Syria, both
countries Israel sees as a threat.
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- "During their meeting, according to Israeli officials,
Lavrov told Shalom that if Israel has specific information about Iran,
they should bring it to Moscow's attention.
-
- Saying that Russia is "the last country interested
in an Iran armed with nuclear weapons," Lavrov said he feels that
often Iranis "used as a slogan." "If you have leads,"
he said, "bring them to us."
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- Lavrov said that Iran feels it needs nuclear weapons
to defend itself against the type of campaign the US waged against Iraq.
"The next time anyone wants to attack one of the countries in the
axis of evil," he said, in a jab at the US, "they should first
come with proof [of weapons of mass destruction]," according to the
Israeli daily.
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- Shalom also raised the issue of Syria's presence in Lebanon,
and the involvement of Palestinian groups based in Damascus in attacks
on Israel. Lavrov was scheduled to hold meetings in DamascusTuesday before
returning to Russia.
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- Upon leaving Israel, Lavrov said he had no Israeli messages
to relay to Syria. On Lebanon, Lavrov had already made it clear while
in Beirut before heading to Israel that the Arab country "had the
right to run its internal affairs with no interference".
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- Sharon's Statements
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- During his meeting with Lavrov, Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon likened the Russian school hostage crisis to what he termed
"Arab Palestinian terrorism against Israel".
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- "We share the disaster that hit Russia, which fell
victim to a horrible act of terror. We ourselves are victims of Arab Palestinian
terror for over 100 years. We are familiar with the cruelty of Palestinian
terror."
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- But his statement carries a historical distortion of
the fact that Israel was created only 52 years ago - precisely on May
15, 1948 on parts of Arab state Palestine, following a UN Resolution dividing
Palestine between the Jews and Palestinians.
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- During the 1967 war, Israel occupied the rest of Palestine,
along with Egypt's Sinai, Israeli Golan Heights, Jordanian and Lebanese
territories.
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- Since the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and
Washington, the Israeli government has been attempting to portray the Palestinian
struggle against its occupation army daily practices as part of the global
"war against terrorism".
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- The Palestinians say attacks by resistance factions on
Israelis should be seen in the context of Israel's 37-year occupation of
the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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