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20 Jun, 2007 07:38

Interview with Nikolay Sergeev

Nikolay Sergeev, an independent analyst, commented for Russia Today on the current situation in the Palestinian territories and ways of a possibly solving the current crisis.

Nikolay Sergeev, an independent analyst, commented for Russia Today on the current situation in the Palestinian territories and ways of a possibly solving the current crisis.

Russia Today: Since Hamas took power in Gaza, the West has shown very strong support to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. So, how can Western powers influence the situation there?

Nikolay Sergeev: I think in practical terms there is no way of improving the situation in the nearest future. Irrespective of who will be negotiating with the participants of the conflict I think the outcome will be zero for the moment. But on the other hand we see the situation where the Western powers including the U.S. have got what I would call an anti-Hamas position while the Russian Federation is regarded to support this movement. Therefore I think just in practical terms there will be endless negotiations. Both sides will be trying to somehow exploit political moments from various angles but in practical terms the possible outcome will be zero.

RT: Let's talk about Russia now, because Russia traditionally has a very kind of strong position in the Middle East. Can Moscow actually put pressure on Hamas to improve the situation there, to end this crisis?

N.S.: If you want to know my personal attitude toward that, it will be very simple. Politically Moscow of course  can influence Hamas plus other participants of this conflict but practically again the answer will be negative, because, as we have mentioned earlier, we have this situation where we have two sides which are outside of the conflict – Western powers including the U.S. versus Russia with the U.S. supporting one side and Russia – another one. It seems to me that these approaches are totally wrong. There should be joint position of, let me call it, Western democracies plus Russia. There should be a joint and single position towards this conflict. Therefore if we are trying to improve the situation from two different sides the outcome will be zero or about it. That is my opinion.

RT: What about other Arab nations? What can they do about, what some analysts call, the Palestinian war?

N.S.: I think we have here a very serious conflict zone, the Gaza strip and the surrounding area, where for many years we have violence and bloodshed. Therefore, in my opinion, the possible action of the international community, I would say, not only the Arab states should be joint. The most important moment, in my opinion, is to stop financing war from any side: Western side, Arab side and so on and so forth. And the real participants, as far as financing warfare is concerned, they are there. If some joint international position to be drafted, the cornerstone of this position should be single approach. And, basically, such approach could be like cutting financing of military supply and sponsorship of food stuff supply, medicine supply and so on and so forth. International community should adopt single political position towards this conflict. It seems to me that these sides, which are now in the conflict, do not understand clearly what they want. Therefore until we draft such an approach internationally we will have problem there in this region. That's it.

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