For decades, the Middle East remains a conflict zone where armed hostilities between Arab countries and Israel have erupted a number of times, the Palestinian problem being the bone of contention. The conflict in the Middle East on the whole and its Palestinian component affect the overall political climate both on the regional level and globally.

The June 23, 2009 visit of Russian President D. Medvedev to Egypt should boost Russia's role in the peace process in the Middle East. The talks between Russian President Medvedev and Egyptian President H. Mubrak helped to transform the relations between Russia and Egypt into a strategic partnership. Besides, the Russian leader made a number of statements important to the Middle Eastern settlement process. President Medvedev confirmed during a meeting with the Arab League President Amr Moussa the centrality of the Palestinian problem in the context of the Middle-Eastern conflict resolution. The resolution must be fair and lead to the establishment of a democratic and viable Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem peacefully co-existing with Israel.

The Russian leader stressed the unacceptability of unilateral steps which can potentially translate into the escalation of the conflict. What was meant in the case was the need to freeze the construction of Israeli settlements in the territory meant to be allocated to the Palestinian state and to stop the shelling of Israel by Palestinian militants.

President Medvedev said the negotiating process should not lose momentum and confirmed Russia's readiness to host a broad international Middle East conference in Moscow. The conference can constitute a significant step towards the resolution of the Palestinian problem. Generally, all the parties involved, including Israel, consented to attend the forum.

Russia has been playing an important role in the Middle East peace process since its commencement. The USSR supported the November 29, 1947 UN General Assembly Resolution 181/II on the establishment of two states – a Palestinian one and Israel – in Palestine which at that time was under the British mandate.

Great Britain transferred the control over the future of Palestine to the UN in 1947 due to completely losing the grip on the situation in the region. On the one hand, the complexity of the situation stemmed from the escalation of the conflict between the local Arab and Jewish communities sparked in part by the inflow of Jewish settlers from Europe and the ongoing colonization of Palestine. On the other hand, the conflict was fueled by the anti-British and anti-Arab terrorist activity of the Jewish paramilitary formations created in the 1920ies – 1930ies.

Partitioning Palestine was the optimal decision, but it was never fulfilled. Israel was unilaterally proclaimed on May 15, 1948, but the Arab state was never created both due to the opposition from the Israeli side and to the position of Arab countries which altogether rejected the UN Resolution as unfair to Palestinians. The moment became the starting date of the conflict between Palestinians and Israel which bred four wars, during which Israel occupied a major part of the territory allocated to the Palestinian state by the UN. The Palestinian Liberation Organization supported by the USSR was formed to liberate the Palestinian territory.

Hamas took the main role in the struggle against the Israeli occupation in the early 2000ies. Due to the disagreements between Fatah and Hamas and to certain external factors, in the 2006 they found themselves locked in an armed conflict which puts serious additional obstacles in the way to the resolution of the Palestinian problem.

International conferences addressing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and aimed to establish the Palestinian state convened a number of times, invariably with Russia's support.

According to the decisions made at the 1993 Oslo Conference, the Palestinian National Administration was created in 1994 – on the West Bank of Jordan and in the Gaza Stripe - on a part of the territory allocated to the Palestinian state by the UN .

In 2003 the international quartet (the US, the EU, the UN, and Russia) adopted a road map plan by which the Palestinian state would be created as a result of the Palestinian-Israeli bilateral talks under the quartet's supervision based on the past UN Resolutions, the land for peace formula (Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territories in return for a peace treaty with the Arab countries), and the Arab League's peace initiative.

Arab countries – Egypt, the Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Sudan – took the mediation role in the talks between Fatah and Hamas and made considerable efforts to restore the Palestinian unity. Russia also called for overcoming the Palestinian internal divisions as quickly as possible and the Russian leadership met with the leaders of both Fatah and Hamas.

Restoring the Palestinian unity is the key condition for the Palestinian side's involvement in the peace process, during the future Moscow conference in particular. The intensification of Russia's efforts in the Middle East peace process should bring closer the fair resolution of the conflict and improve the overall political climate in the Middle East as well as worldwide.