Lavrov Calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

By Staff, Agencies

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that “It is necessary to break the vicious circle of violence in the ‘Israel’-Palestine conflict.”

In an exclusive year-end interview with TASS news agency, Lavrov viewed that this is the only way to achieve stabilization in Gaza and in the Middle East as a whole.

“It is unacceptable to justify, let alone encourage, terrorist attacks, or to respond to them with methods of collective punishment in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law,” the Foreign Minister said.

Lavrov has said the outbreak of the Middle Eastern conflict is a result of the longstanding failures of US foreign policy. “It’s time for everyone to learn a lesson from the consequences of US attempts to play behind-the-scenes diplomacy in the Middle East,” he said. “It was Washington’s line of monopolizing mediation efforts and undermining the international legal framework for a settlement that led to the current escalation in the conflict zone.”

Russia’s stance, Lavrov stressed, “is based on the decisions of the Security Council and the UN General Assembly, the Arab Peace Initiative.” He called for the establishment of a Palestinian state. “The task of international mediators is to help the parties establish a dialogue within which they could resolve all controversial issues.” The minister admitted that “it’s not easy,” adding, however, that without talks, bloodshed will continue.

“It is necessary to break the vicious circle of violence, to eliminate the injustice from which several generations of Palestinians have been suffering,” the minister said.