Yevgeny Primakov: World Community Must Carry Out Mideastern Settlement

Yevgeny Primakov has announced that the world community must carry out the Mideastern settlement.

Addressing the 4th International Economic Forum in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, the well-known Russian politician and head of Russia's Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the United Nations, the European Union, the USA and Russia must work out a final solution to the Mideastern problem and make the Arabs and the Israelis carry it out.

The decision can be based on the Saudi initiative, which envisages withdrawal of Israeli troops to the borders of 1967, creation of a Palestinian State, and recognition of Israel by the Arabs, he stressed.

Primakov said it would not do to wait until the Arabs and the Israelis solved the problem, because the ongoing conflict created an inviting atmosphere for international terrorism, and cited the example with Israel, a state that had been founded with the help of UN resolutions, not Arabian-Jewish talks.

He also criticized the Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon's statement that only Israel and the USA were capable of solving the Mideastern problem. A decision of this kind would suit neither Russia nor the Arabs nor the USA, who were not interested in monopolizing the role of an intermediary after the events of September 11th, he emphasized.

Primakov also warned that a war against Iraq would bring about a split of the world into Moslems and non-Moslems, adding that that would also tell on those of the European countries that had a rapidly growing Moslem population, on Russia with its 20 million of Moslems, and even on the USA.