MOSCOW, Feb 6: Countries are likely to hold international talks to end the bloodshed in the Middle East, the foreign minister of Russia said on Tuesday.

“I think the idea of an international conference (on the Middle East) will be taken up by the international community,” the minister Sergei Lavrov told a joint news conference here with Amr Mussa, head of the 22-nation Arab League. Russia forms part of a key group of mediators on the conflict.

“Those which were against (such talks) understand that life is pushing us in that direction,” Lavrov added. The United States and Israel have opposed the prospect of such a conference.

Russia is part of the so-called Quartet of world powers – along with the United Nations, United States and European Union – trying to mediate in unrest between Israel and the Palestinians, whose ruling Hamas party refuses to recognise the Jewish state.

But Russia has also differed with the United States on the issue of engaging with Hamas and its backer, Syria, as part of the peace effort.

Washington refuses contact with Syria, though Lavrov said that a quartet meeting last week recognised the need to engage other Arab countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Mussa said he and Lavrov agreed that “our positions are close or overlap on all questions” concerning peace in the Middle East.

“We should join efforts to convene an international conference which must relaunch the negotiation process,” the Arab League’s secretary general said.—AFP