Russia has invited Security Council ministers to a meeting next week to give "new impetus" to the Middle East peace process.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who holds the council presidency this month, said Monday that "the meeting will reaffirm the council's involvement in the search for a Middle East settlement."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will preside at the May 11 meeting, and Churkin said some ministers already have accepted. The only speakers will be representatives of the 15 council nations and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, he said.
Last December, the Security Council approved a resolution stressing that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process initiated by the United States in 2008 is irreversible and urging intensified efforts to achieve Middle East peace.
The resolution, co-sponsored by the U.S. and Russia, backed efforts by Israel and the Palestinians to conclude a peace treaty and fulfill the vision that they can live peacefully side by side as independent democratic states.
The negotiating process, launched by former President George W. Bush in November 2007, called for the Israelis and Palestinians to try to sign a peace agreement by the end of 2008. That would have given Bush a diplomatic victory before turning the presidency over to Barack Obama — but it was not to be.
Israel's previous government was committed to two-state goal. But in the month since he became Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed misgivings about an independent Palestinian state.
Netanyahu has pointed to Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip and warned that turning over land to the Palestinians can bring extremists to power. He has instead offered the Palestinians "economic peace."
Churkin said he expects diplomats at the ministerial meeting to discuss the council's role "and measures to be taken to resume the peace process, normalize the situation in the region, and implement the council's decisions on that issue."
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