Russia will help Palestine to conduct elections depending on the situation

Russia will help Palestine to conduct elections depending on the situation, told journalists Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov after a meeting of the Group of Four mediators in the Mideastern settlement in New York.

Russian observers will be watching the course of elections just like they did in 1996, said Ivanov, who does not rule out that the Russian side might also help Palestine with "technical details." Asked about the ways in which Russia was intending to help Palestine with its reforms, Ivanov replied that that would depend "on the course of these reforms." He reminded journalists that Russia was participating in discussions of the ways the world community could help Palestinian reforms at a ministerial and expert levels.

The aforementioned Group of Four unites Russia, the USA, the European Union, and the United Nations. By now, the parties have already met three times. The third meeting, the one that was held in New York, gathered Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Danish Foreign Minister and current EU Chairman Per Stig Meller, EU High Representative for foreign policy and security issues Javier Solana, and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.