Moscow urges dialogue between new Palestinian Cabinet and Hamas

MOSCOW, June 18 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow hopes that the new Palestinian Cabinet will employ all efforts to get the situation in the region back to normal and develop dialogue with Hamas, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last week dissolved the government led by Hamas's Ismail Haniya, and instructed pro-Western Fatah member Salam Fayyad, formerly a finance minister, to form a new emergency Cabinet. The Cabinet was sworn in Sunday, and Abbas declared all armed structures linked to Hamas illegal, accusing Hamas of starting the armed rebellion June 10.

The ministry said in a statement that in order to stabilize the situation, including humanitarian issues, and to put an end to the inter-Palestinian standoff after a week-long conflict between the two rival Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, "a broad dialogue between all political Palestinian forces, including Hamas, should be initiated."

A quartet of mediators in the Middle East conflict, which comprises Russia, the European Union, the United States and the United Nations, agreed Sunday that the Palestinian leader's decision to dissolve a coalition government and form an emergency Cabinet was legitimate.