Foreign Ministry: Russia is ready to work on a settlement in the Middle East within the UN framework

Russia is ready to work on a Middle East settlement and will advocate collective efforts. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergei Vershinin.

“We are ready for any work and consultations within the UN, but it is clear that it is impossible to unblock the work of a mechanism in which one of the parties included in it – the Americans – does not want this. The mechanism must be collective. We were, are and will be for collective efforts,” he said (quote via Interfax).

He added that what is happening between Palestine and Israel is the result of the fact that “the Americans tried to monopolize the achievements of the Middle East settlement and replace the Middle East settlement, which should be based on a well-known international legal basis, with some kind of deals, including economic ones.”

Previously, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergei Ryabkov statedthat there is a risk of further escalation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone. According to him, the situation between Israel and Palestine is due to “the destructive course of recent years, which, in fact, crossed out or was an attempt to cross out the scheme for a two-state settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”

The Palestinian group Hamas began fighting against Israel on the morning of October 7. The militants attacked army border units and entered Israeli populated areas, where they captured an unknown number of military and civilian hostages. In response, the Israeli army launched Operation Iron Swords. The government announced that the country had entered a state of war.

The total number of deaths during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, according to the latest data, has already exceeded 1,500 people. Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov previously reported that the number of Russian citizens killed as a result of the attack by the Palestinian group had increased to two.