During his address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized Israel, accusing the Jewish state of “destabilizing the Middle East.” While Lavrov denounced Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, he also expressed concerns regarding the ongoing situation in Gaza.
“Israel’s unlawful use of force against the Palestinians and its aggressive actions towards Iran, Qatar, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq pose a threat to the stability of the entire Middle East,” the Russian foreign minister stated at the international gathering.
He stressed that Hamas’s brutal assault on October 7 does not warrant “justification for the collective punishment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where children are perishing due to bombings and starvation. Hospitals and schools are being obliterated, leaving hundreds of thousands without shelter.”
Lavrov accused Israel of undermining the Palestinian State.
During his speech, Lavrov elaborated on how Israel is attempting to undermine “UN resolutions regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state.” He pointed out that the recognition of Palestine by Western nations several months after their initial intentions indicates that “they had anticipated that by the time the general assembly convened, there would be nothing and no one left to acknowledge.”
“The situation necessitates immediate action to avert such a scenario, which was strongly supported by participants at the high-level international conference on Palestine,” he cautioned.
The Russian diplomat condemned the attacks on Iranian nuclear sites and Qatar, highlighting that these provocative actions were taken “while negotiations with Hamas were ongoing there, facilitated by American mediators.”
He also targeted the sanctions that the United States has placed on Iran and criticized Western attempts to either reinstate or strengthen these restrictions as “illegal,” characterizing them as part of what he referred to as Washington’s strategy of “blackmail and pressure.”
He asserted that the West had undermined diplomatic avenues to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement and dismissed what he termed as manipulations at the UNSC aimed at isolating Tehran. In summary, Lavrov’s speech at the UNGA was a denunciation of the West, which he blamed for multiple global crises.
