‘Blowing up the Middle East’: Russia’s Lavrov slams Israel at UNGA, raises concerns over Gaza crisis

While addressing the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov slammed Israel, accusing the Jewish nation of “blowing up the Middle East”. While Lavrov condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, he also raised concerns about the ongoing crisis in Gaza.

“Israel’s illegal use of force against the Palestinians and aggressive actions against Iran, Qatar, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq threatened to blow up the entire Middle East,” the Russian foreign minister said at the international event.

He emphasised that Hamas’s gruesome attack on October 7 does not provide “justification for the collective punishment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian children are dying from bombing and starvation. Hospitals and schools are being destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people are being left without shelter.”

Lavrov accuses Israel of burying the Palestinian State

During his address, Lavrov also explained how Israel is trying to bury “UN decisions on the creation of a Palestinian state.” Lavrov noted that the fact that Western countries recognised Palestine several months after they announced their intentions to do so shows that “they had hoped that by the time the general assembly session was convened, there would be nothing and no one left to recognise.”

“The situation requires urgent action to prevent such a scenario, which was strongly advocated by the participants at the high-level international conference on Palestine,” he warned.

The Russian diplomat condemned both strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and Qatar. Emphasising how the provocative measures were taken “at a time when negotiations with Hamas were being held there with the participation of American mediators.”

He also aimed sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran and went on to blast Western efforts to restore or tighten restrictions as “illegal” and evidence of what he described as Washington’s strategy of “blackmail and pressure.”

He insisted that the West had sabotaged diplomatic options to revive the 2015 nuclear deal and rejected what he called manipulations at the UNSC to isolate Tehran. Overall, Lavrov’s address at the UNGA was an attack on the West as he held them responsible for several global crises.