As Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reported in her Oct. 2 briefing, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded immediately to an urgent Oct. 1 request by the heads of Arab diplomatic missions in Moscow to meet and discuss the crisis in Southwest Asia and the steps to bring about a “comprehensive and durable peace in the Middle East as quickly as possible by establishing a sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.” At that meeting, Zakharova reported, Lavrov and the foreign diplomats denounced the “position of the UN Security Council members representing the West,” whose year-long refusal to act “have prevented this high international body from sending a strong signal.”
The group held the U.S. responsible for blocking any positive UNSC action, Zakharova explained, adding, “once again, we call on all the parties involved to exercise restraint and refrain from making the military and political situation even worse, while preventing the region from sliding into the abyss of a bigger war.” Great concern was expressed on the continuing and unprecedented escalation of violence, and participants called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict zone. The danger of a full-scale war across the region was high on the agenda. Participants issued a call for all involved parties to “renounce provocations, exercise restraint and act responsibly in keeping with the existing resolutions adopted by the United Nations and its Security Council.”
The Arab diplomats thanked Russia for its proactive efforts within the UN Security Council “to stop the bloodshed in the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation zone and bring the situation back to normal.” Zakharova reiterated Moscow’s concern over the escalating crisis in the region, warning that if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict isn’t resolved, a larger escalation is inevitable. “Not a single country in the Middle East would benefit from this catastrophic scenario,” she added. “We expect all the constructive international actors to use any means at their disposal to prevent it from materializing. It is our belief that a fair resolution of the Palestinian issue is instrumental for improving the overall situation.”
