If parties to the Mideast conflict are unable to agree among themselves, the international community should impose a collective solution, a Russian expert said on Monday.

"The region needs a collective solution imposed on it," Alexei Vasilyev, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of African Studies, told an international Middle East conference in Jordan.

"The Israeli leadership today does not want negotiations [because] there are not many terrorist attacks and the Palestinians are divided."

He was speaking at an international conference called "Middle East 2020: Is a Comprehensive Settlement Possible?"

Vasilyev said Israel was only playing for time and that such negotiations "are pointless."

He questioned the viability of Palestinian statehood and said the only solution could be the creation of "a single Arab-Israeli state."

He echoed the view of another Russian expert, who suggested that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict could not be resolved in the current political climate.

Yevgeny Satanovsky, the president of the Institute of Middle East Studies, blamed the UN, among others, for the current impasse. "During the past 60 years, the UN has driven the situation into an absolute deadlock," he said.

SUWEIMA (Jordan), December 21 (RIA Novosti)