MOSCOW - Russia should be more objective in its assessment of the Middle East conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview published in Moscow Wednesday, ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's historic visit to the region.
"For the situation to be regulated successfully, Russia should consider Israel and its problems in a more objective and balanced way," the Russian newspaper Trud quoted Sharon as saying.
Moscow is one of the four sponsors of the Middle East peace roadmap plan, which has sought to create a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel by 2005, but has made next to no progress since its launch.
Russia, whose foreign policy is traditionally considered pro-Arab and pro-Palestinian, is seeking to regain some of its lost influence in the Middle East since the fall of the Soviet Union.
"We would greet with understanding, for example, if Russia would take into account not only Arab but Israeli points of view before voting at the UN," Sharon said in an interview with the daily.
He also stressed the fact that the election earlier this year of Mahmud Abbas as the new leader of the Palestinian authority gave hope for a peaceful regulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Putin is due to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories at the end of the month, the first trip by a Russian leader to the Jewish state.
Although relations between Israel and Moscow improved after the breakup of the Soviet Union, amid increasing immigration of former Soviet citizens to the Jewish state, they were strained recently over Russia's decision to sell missiles to Syria.
Israel and its main ally Washington have expressed disquiet about the planned sale, fearing the weapons could end up in the hands of Lebanon's Damascus-backed Hezbollah Shiite militia.
04/06/2005 09:05 GMT