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Russia blames US for blocking Quartet peace efforts

NEW YORK, July 28 (KUNA) -- Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin on Monday blamed the US for blocking any action by the Quartet on the Middle East peace process, saying what is happening in Gaza these weeks is the result of that the US policy.
   "You know that for a long time the US has decided to go it alone and to keep the Quartet somewhere in the back of the room. And I think to some extent, we are reaping the consequences of that policy," Churkin told a press conference here.
   He claimed that Russia was trying to make the work of the Quartet - UN, US, EU and Russia - "more active during the Gaza crisis, "but under the circumstances, we failed again for obvious reasons."
   He expressed disappointment at the presidential statement on Gaza issued by the Security Council Sunday night, saying "I hope it is a useful document, but ... it was too little, too late. We could have come up with a stronger and more articulated response from the Council even sooner."  
   Palestine and the Arab group, chaired by Kuwaiti Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi, would have preferred a resolution instead of a presidential statement.
   On the Security Council presidential statement, proposed by Russia earlier today on the illicit oil trade from Syria and Iraq, Churkin said Moscow "did have evidence" that the terrorist groups were engaged in such illegal activities with ISIL and Al-Nusra Front to finance their terrorist activities.
   He refused to disclose the partners engaged in such illicit trade with the terrorist groups.  
   Asked why a reference to a Council resolution adopted last March condemning the illicit export of crude oil from Libya and authorizing boarding suspected vessels was dropped from today's presidential statement, Churkin said the US insisted on watering it down and on dropping reference to the Libyan case.
   On the Malaysian airplane that crashed on July 17 over eastern Ukraine killing all  298 persons on board, Churkin said Council resolution 2166, which called for an objective, impartial and international investigation of the incident, also called for an immediate end to the fighting in the area of the crash.
   "Unfortunately, the fighting continued," he said with regret, despite Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko's promise that no Ukrainian military activities would take place within a 40-km radius of the crash site.
   "The fighting did continue, and that fighting did not allow the international investigators and the teams protecting them to reach the crash site," he complained.
   "All this is extremely disturbing," he said, adding that today some Ukrainian security officials expressed their intention to take over the site militarily. "That would amount to direct violation of resolution 2166," he stressed.
   On the other hand, he said he was encouraged by the signing earlier today of an agreement between Kiev and the Dutch government allowing the presence of their investigators on the crash site.
   "So the combination of that agreement and the promise given to the Dutch Government on the end of the fighting in that area would allow the investigators to go to the site as quickly as possible," he stated. (end) sj.gb