"The Russian Foreign Ministry did not leave these words unnoticed, and they caused our surprise. They clearly contradict statements made by Israeli leaders to our Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during his recent visit to the Middle East", - officials at the Foreign Ministry's Information and Press Department said on Friday.
"We proceed from the fact that the special statement of October 6 by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon brought required clarity to the issue. In that statement he confirmed Israeli government's commitment to the "Road Map" of Middle Eastern settlement", - Foreign Ministry officials emphasized, adding that Weissglass himself later said that his words had been interpreted in a wrong way, "taken out of the context".
In an interview to the Israeli "Haaretz" newspaper Weissglass said that the plan for a unilateral demarcation with the Palestinians, providing for Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, had been originally aimed only at freezing the peace process and excluding any chance to create a Palestinian state for an indefinite period.
"We are still convinced that the "Road Map" remains the only international legal document approved so far, which, if implemented, would make it possible to break the spiral of violence and achieve a sustainable, fair and comprehensive settlement at the Middle East", - Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized.
Together with other members of the international mediators' "quartet" (Russia, the USA, the UN and the EU), Moscow assures, it will continue energetic efforts towards an early renewal of the peace process on the "Road Map" basis to achieve the plan's task of creating a sovereign, democratic and integral Palestinian state, co-existing side by side with Israel in the atmosphere of peace and security.
