April 28, 2024 (EIRNS)—UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini is in Moscow where he granted a “special interview” to TASS, in which he “provided insight into his visit to Russia, highlighted what support Moscow has provided to the agency, and addressed the motivations behind some countries’ attempts to dismantle UNRWA and undermine the interests of Palestinians,” wrote TASS in its complete transcript on April 28. The interview and Lazzarini’s presence in Moscow both seem to be quite extraordinary.
“I am in Moscow today because there is a meeting among the BRICS members on the Middle East at the level of the Deputy Foreign Ministers or Special Envoys. I received this invitation to address the BRICS as a group,” Lazzarini explained at the outset. He noted that he had just come to Moscow from New York City where he had addressed the UN Security Council. “So my objective now is to warn the UN Member States on this platform about what the impact would be, would UNRWA be dismantled in Gaza, or in Jerusalem, or in East Jerusalem, or in the West Bank,” he said.
“First of all, there would be an impact on our collective ability to respond to the current unprecedented crisis. As we know, Gaza has been a little bit of all the superlative, if you look at the number of people killed, the number of children killed, the number of medical facilities and hospitals destroyed, the level of destruction, the level of displacement in the Gaza Strip and today we are even talking about an artificial famine which is looming. Now dismantling the main organization which is also the main backbone of the international response in Gaza can only weaken our collective effort to reverse this looming famine.”
