Abbas hopes year 2013 be declared year of Mideast

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hopes that the year 2013 will be declared theyear of Middle East settlement.“We hope that this year will be declared the year of Middle East settlement and peace in our region,” Abbas said in a statement relayed by Russian Itar-Tass news agency Friday.“The efforts should be taken to resume the serious and substantive peace process based on the resolutions, which were approved by the international community and worked out on the Arab Peace Initiative,” the Palestinian president said.“Such move envisages stopping Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories and forming the state within the1967 borders with the capital in East Jerusalem – the state, which lived side by side with Israel in peace,good-neighbourliness and security,” Abbas stressed.On behalf of the Palestinian people he expressed deep gratitude for Russia’s “tireless efforts to maintain peace in the region and provide political support to the Palestinian people on the way to make it independent and free”.For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hoped that the Palestinian-Israeli settlement would develop positively. “We will do all what depends on us,” he stressed.It is noted that President Abbas flew into the Russian capital earlier Wednesday on a two-day state visit to Russia at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and which will continue until March 16, Itar- tass reported.President Vladimir Putin met Thursday in Moscow with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas where the two leaders discussed joint cooperation and the situation in the Middle East, and the possibility of the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.This is the first visit to Russia by the Palestinian leader since Palestine s attaining the status of an observer state in the United Nations on November 29, 2012, the Kremlin press service reports.