CAIRO: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Sultanov is to arrive in Cairo Tuesday for a two-day visit on the first leg of a Mideast tour, said Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian ambassador in Cairo. Sultanov, who is also the special envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Mideast issues, is to come to Egypt after accompanying Putin to his first state visit to the United Arab Emirates. The Russian envoy is expected to meet with Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Tuesday and Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Amr Moussa, Bogdanov added. The talks will include "means of pushing peace in the Middle East and the expected meeting between the international quartet and the AL special commission on the Arab initiative in New York on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly late this September, the ambassador said. Also, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is to meet with Aboul Gheit in New York in September, he added. Answering a query on the proposed US peace conference to be held in Washington in November and whether it contradicts Moscow's call for holding a peace conference, Bogdanov said that the American proposal is totally unclear. Nobody knows who will actually attend the Washington conference, on what level, what the goal of the conference is or which legal foundation it is based on. "We expect the Americans to answer such questions, he added. As for the conference Moscow has been calling for, the Russian ambassador explained that the idea is in line with the Madrid peace conference, which is bringing experts from both sides to study how peace can be achieved with Israel's withdrawal from 1967 lines and the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. The tour will also take Sultanov to Damascus and Beirut, said Bogdanov.
