Renewed optimism after talks between Putin and Abbas

AMMAN: Russia’s rivalry with the US may encourage it to counter American influence over the stagnant Middle East peace process, Palestinian leaders believe.

The renewed optimism follows talks in Moscow on Monday between the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

No official agreement was announced after the talks but, in private, Palestinian officials hope Moscow’s race with Washington for strategic supremacy could play into their hands.

“The Middle East is very important to the Russians and we are optimistic about this process, but it will not be easy,” Abdel Hafiz Nofal, the Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to Russia, told Arab News.

Since December, when US President Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the Palestinians have sought new allies to co-sponsor peace talks and counter America’s close relationship with Tel Aviv.

“We ask that the US be not the only mediator but just one of the mediators,” Abbas said in Moscow.

Putin told him the situation was “far from what we want to see” and said he had “always supported the Palestinian people.”

Before Monday’s talks, Trump told Putin in a phone call that everyone should “work toward an enduring peace agreement.” However, the Palestinians see little hope of that while America calls the shots.

Monday’s talks should be seen in a broader regional context, with Moscow increasingly confident that it can roll back US influence in the Middle East, Hazm Al-Mazouni, a Russian-speaking Syrian journalist in Amman, told Arab News.

Russia’s military support for President Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, for example, had wrested control from the US-sponsored opposition and altered the course of the civil war. “The Russian approach in Syria shows it wants a bigger role in confronting the US and in pursuing its own policies in the region,” Al-Mazouni said.