Foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) who met on Oct. 12 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, issued a statement calling for negotiations between Israel and Palestine, as well as a ceasefire. They also called for establishing a mechanism for inviting observer states to join in the meetings of the CIS. The meeting was to prepare for the CIS heads of state summit on Oct. 13.
After the meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “Today we touched on this issue, we will see before the [CIS] summit whether it will be possible to agree on a common position for its official presentation. But everyone is of the same opinion. Today we discussed it in a small group, that it is necessary to stop this conflict immediately, to respect international humanitarian law, to prevent any manifestations of terrorist actions, indiscriminate use of force, from which civilians on both sides can suffer and are already suffering in large numbers.” He added that it is also necessary to focus on the “substance of the problem” of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as Russian President Vladimir Putin had said the day before.
