Survey conducted in\u00a0International newspaper by YouGov finds EU and China behind Russia as potential effective mediators. Almost 60 percent of respondents said they did not trust the US to mediate Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. Majority of Palestinians view China and Russia as potentially effective mediators for their peace talks with the state of Israel, a recent survey revealed.
\nThe survey, conducted by YouGov in May at the request of\u00a0international\u00a0news paper, showed that Palestinians\u2019 most preferred potential peace broker was Russia, followed closely by the European Union and China, while the US proved far from popular among the residents of the West Bank and Gaza.
\nCommenting on the results of the survey on the preferences of Palestinians, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova concluded: \u201cBecause Russia has not betrayed those who pinned their hopes on it.\u201d
\nThe Information and Press Department (IPD) of the Russian Foreign Ministry said: \u201cMoscow, as it stated in IPD\u2019s comment to for international newspaper, continues to believe that the existing international legal framework, the Arab peace initiative in Al-Taif and the groundwork that has been achieved between Israelis and Palestinians throughout the negotiation process on the basis of (a) two-state solution can serve as a foundation for resuming direct negotiations between the parties to the conflict.\u201d
\n\u201cOur position is clear, unchangeable and not subject to political conjuncture,\u201d the IPD added. \u201cWe are constantly talking about this to our Palestinian friends and the Israeli side as well.\u201d
\nIn October last year, the Palestinian Authority told Russian President Vladimir Putin people in Palestine may consider US mediation only if it is part of the Quartet, a foursome of nations that includes Russia.
\nFollowing Beijing\u2019s success in brokering the Saudi-Iranian diplomatic agreement in March, a sweeping 80 percent of the survey respondents, who expressed a clear opinion on the topic, supported a Chinese role in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
\nIn December, President Xi Jinping expressed during an official visit to Riyadh his country\u2019s keenness to help resolve the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. This led to five days of intense talks in March in Beijing, delivering an agreement that entails a respect of sovereignty of regional countries, the restoration of diplomatic ties, and the revival of previously agreed bilateral treaties between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
\nIn the wake of this success, China offered in April, amid rising tension in Jerusalem, to facilitate peace talks between Israel and Palestine, urging their resumption as soon as possible.
\nContrary to the stance on China, almost 60 percent of participants did not trust the US to mediate Palestinian-Israeli negotiations despite that \u2013 or perhaps because \u2013 86 percent believed the US had significant influence over Israel.
\n\u201cPalestinians have never seen the US as a neutral or fair broker,\u201d said director of the London-based Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), Chris Doyle, adding that \u201cthe (Palestinian) leadership has tolerated the US because, quite simply, as the world\u2019s sole superpower for many years, (they) have had no choice.\u201d
\nHe told that \u201cthere are many, many reasons why Palestinians \u2013 including the leadership \u2013 have never viewed the US as that responsible broker.\u201d
\n\u201cThe US overtly states that it is pro-Israel, that it has a strategic alliance with the State of Israel, it routinely passes pro-Israel resolutions in Congress, and, of course, vetoes attempts to pass Security Council resolutions critical of the State of Israel and its conduct,\u201d Doyle explained.
\nHe pointed out that the \u201cthe US position in the region is clearly declining,\u201d explaining that \u201cin part, this is because of the decisions of successive presidents going back to the Obama administration to pivot to Asia, to have less to do with the Middle East, and to try to avoid getting sucked into protracted conflicts.
\n\u201cWe are seeing, therefore, less and less US mediation efforts in the region and involvement. It is still there \u2013 it is not a non-actor, but it is not there in the way that it once used to be. Not in the way, for example, under the Clinton administration, or when John Kerry was doing his very energetic diplomacy a decade ago.\u201d
\nAnd while the EU was the respondents\u2019 second preferred mediator among the five suggested major powers \u2013 the US, EU, Japan, and China alongside Russia, Doyle said \u201cthe problem with the EU is that it is increasingly divided, with a lot of Central and Eastern European countries increasingly moving away from the international consensus that had existed since 1980.\u201d
\n\u201cYou have a core group of largely Western European states who do adopt sensible positions based in international national law,\u201d he continued, \u201cSo the idea of the EU as a mediator right now seems rather far-fetched because it simply does not have the sort of unity which would allow it to play out that role.\u201d
\nDoyle highlighted that the EU \u201chas to have the political courage to act in this fashion and to ignore any pressures that the US and Israel would apply to the European Union \u2013 and as yet, there has been not enough political will involved.\u201d
\nA better mediation model, according to Doyle, would be to \u201cdo it through the United Nations, with the involvement of major powers, including the US, who would be the guarantors of any agreement that came out of that sort of process.\u201d
\nSome survey respondents also blamed US bias towards Israel for the recurring failure of peace talks. Doyle underscored that \u201cthe idea that the US can be the sole loan broker for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians\u201d was \u201csimply not credible anymore. Not to those on the outside, but above all to Palestinians.\u201d
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