Igor Ivanov flies to New York

On Monday Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has flown to New York. On Tuesday, July 16, he will take part in the third get-together of the four international mediators for the Middle Eastern settlement. They are -- the United States' Secretary of State Colin Powell; Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller of Denmark, the current chair country of the European Union; the EU High Commissioner for Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana; the United Nations' Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The principal goal of this meeting is further exchange of opinion on ways to overcome the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation and renew the political process on the basis of a crisis-emergence concept. This concept intends parallel movements towards resolving the entire set of problems -- security, resumption of the negotiation process, giving help to Palestinians, conduct of overdue reforms of the Palestinian National Authority.

Igor Ivanov does not rule out that the foreign ministers of some Arab states will join in the discussion by the four international mediators in New York. According to an official spokesman of the American State Department, they will be the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan.

"During the meeting we are going to discuss steps towards emergence from the crisis," said Igor Ivanov. "The situation is complex but, if the dialogue is broken, it will become even more complicated," believes the Russian foreign minister.

In New York Igor Ivanov will hold bilateral meetings with his foreign analogues.