Russia calls on Palestinian militants to free Israeli soldier

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov today called for Palestinian militants to release a captured Israeli soldier and stop attacking Israeli cities.

He called on Israel to exercise restraint.

“The most important thing right now is to achieve the release of the captive Israeli soldier,” Lavrov said, adding that Moscow was using all available channels to assist in that aim.

He and his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni held talks in Moscow as tensions between Israel and the Palestinians soared over an Israeli soldier captured more than a week ago.

The three Palestinian militant groups that captured the soldier issued an ultimatum Monday giving Israel until 6am (4am irish time) tomorrow to start releasing Palestinian prisoners or “bear all the consequences”.

Lavrov, speaking to reporters alongside Livni, said it was necessary to “by all means stop the spiral of violence, which requires restraint and wisdom”.

“Such restraint, together with the involvement of the international community, can lead to dialogue restarting and the two sides can go back to implementing the road map,” Lavrov said.

Livni said she had hesitated to go to Russia at such a tense time, but said Israel believed Russia’s role “can be very important” in helping solve the crisis.

She thanked Lavrov for calling for the unconditional release of the soldier.

“I hope that the signal that Russia and the international community are sending will help us achieve the desired result,” she said.

However, she expressed Israel’s displeasure with Russia’s having hosted a high-level Hamas delegation earlier this year, when Moscow broke ranks with other members of the so-called Quartet of Mideast negotiators.

“If someone still had any doubts about the character of Hamas, the recent events days have demonstrated that the government claims responsibility for terrorist attacks and strives to conduct negotiations concerning those terrorist attacks with Israel,” Livni said.

“Elections are not some kind of a washing machine whereby a terrorist organisation can wash itself. Terror is terror,” she said.

Later, the Israeli government said it would not negotiate with Palestinian militants holding the Israeli soldier.

“There will be no negotiations to release prisoners,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement that held the Palestinians’ ruling Hamas party responsible for the safe return of 19-year-old Cpl Gilad Shalit.