Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, during a July 15 briefing, called on all sides in the Persian Gulf conflict to return to negotiations. “We call on all parties to abandon confrontational logic and return to the negotiating table. It is necessary to recognize the unviability of an approach that is framed as ‘escalation in response to escalation,’ which entails serious damage to the civilian populations of all involved states, their economies, the uninterrupted functioning of strategic waterways, and, as a result, the undermining of the peaceful economy,” she noted, reported TASS.
Zakharova emphasized that Moscow is “extremely concerned” about the resumption of hostilities in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, as the unpredictable course of events “threatens the prospects for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.”
“It is particularly regrettable that the renewed confrontation occurred at a time when, after the signing of the Islamabad Memorandum, prospects for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict were opening up,” she continued. She also warned of the “real threat of an expansion of the regional crisis area—on land, in the sea, in the air—with extremely negative geopolitical consequences.”
At the UN on Tuesday, Chinese envoy Sun Lei told the Security Council that “the US has irrefutable responsibility over the current situation in Yemen and the Red Sea.”
