Russia's foreign ministry will summon Israeli ambassador Simona Halperin over "unacceptable comments" she made in an interview, the TASS news agency cited the ministry as saying on Monday.
Mikhail Bogdanov, advisor to President Vladimir Putin for the Middle East, and Simona Halperin © Mena Today/File Photo
Russia's foreign ministry will summon Israeli ambassador Simona Halperin over "unacceptable comments" she made in an interview, the TASS news agency cited the ministry as saying on Monday.
Halperin, according to the ministry, misrepresented Russia's foreign policy stance in the interview with Russia's Kommersant daily, published on Sunday.
The ministry described her comments as "an extremely unsuccessful start" to her diplomatic posting, which began last December.
In the interview, Halperin criticised Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for playing down the importance of the Holocaust and said Russia was being too friendly with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
A Lebanese official denied on Thursday a Reuters report that Beirut had agreed with Israel to a shortlist of countries that could send troops to Lebanon to verify the disarmament of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and said it was following up on the issue with Washington.
Israel won't withdraw from southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed, the defence minister said on Thursday, qualifying remarks he made a day earlier that had suggested Israeli forces would occupy the territory indefinitely and drew U.S. criticism.
Israeli troops clashed with Jewish settlers on Wednesday while trying to disperse them from a West Bank outpost they set up directly in front of Palestinian homes, and later withdrew from the area after failing to clear the settlers, witnesses said.
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