Russia is planning to arrange another international conference on the Middle East despite Israel's objections, according to sources quoted by the Post following Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit last week.

He reportedly was "nasty" during difficult talks with his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni. Russia stated during the Annapolis, Maryland conference late last year it wanted to host a similar meeting, but the proposal was not warmly received by other western countries, who thought the timing was not appropriate. However, analysts have noted that Russia now is afraid of Iran's growing influence in Hamas and wants to try to advance Israeli negotiations with Fatah leader Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.