Russia condemns Israel over security barrier

Russia has criticised Israel  for building a security barrier cutting into land Palestinians want for a state and said all international…

Russia has criticised Israel  for building a security barrier cutting into land Palestinians want for a state and said all international efforts to settle the conflict had reached deadlock.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, speaking alongside his Palestinian counterpart, said permanent UN Security Council member Russia had voiced these concerns in the International Court of Justice, due to discuss the wall's legality next month.

"Russia is against any unilateral action in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Mr Ivanov told reporters after day-long talks with Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath.

Mr Shaath was in Dublin earlier this month for talks with the Government. He was in Moscow as part of a European trip to rally  opposition to the West Bank barrier ahead of the start of hearings at the International Court of Justice in February.

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"That's why we think that construction of the so-called dividing wall contradicts the interests of a peace settlement and realisation of the 'road map' plan," Mr Ivanov said in what was Russia's first clear judgment on the matter.

"The current deadlock can satisfy no one; neither the two sides of the conflict, nor the international community," Mr Ivanov said.

Russia, along with the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, backs the "road map" peace plan which sets out a path to a Palestinian state by 2005.

The United States has criticised the wall as a unilateral action inconsistent with the road map.