New York [US], September 28 : Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, addressing the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, warned that the "illegal use of force" by Israel "threatens to blow up the entire Middle East".
"Today, the illegal use of force by Israel against Palestinians, aggressive actions against Iran, Qatar, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq threaten to blow up the entire Middle East," Lavrov said in his speech at the UN headquarters in New York.
Lavrov said Russia condemned the attack by Hamas militants on Israelis." However, he insisted that this cannot "justify" Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza.
"There is no justification for the brutal killings of the civilian population of Palestine, just as there is none for terrorist acts," he added. "There is no justification for the collective punishment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian children die under bombings and hunger, hospitals and schools are destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people are left homeless."
Lavrov went on to strongly criticise Israel's intentions to annex parts of the West Bank. "There is no justification for plans to annex the West Bank of the Jordan River," he said. "In fact, we are dealing with an attempt at a kind of state coup aimed at burying the UN resolutions on the creation of a Palestinian state."
Referring to recent moves by some Western governments to recognise Palestine formally, Lavrov raised questions about the delay. "Recently, a number of Western governments announced recognition of the State of Palestine. Moreover, they announced their intention to do so several months ago," he said. "The question arises: why wait so long? Apparently, they hoped that soon there would be nothing left to recognise."
He further calls for urgent international efforts to prevent further escalation in the region. "The situation requires urgent actions to prevent such a scenario, in favour of which the participants of the High-Level International Conference on Palestine have firmly spoken," Lavrov told the UN Assembly.
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