Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused European leaders who are announcing the upcoming recognition of Palestine of duplicity. According to him, they hope that “there will be nothing to recognize“.
“We all repeat like a mantra: “The long-term solution to the crisis is the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.“ Look at the map. “There are facts on the ground that rule out the creation of a state,” noted the head of the Russian diplomatic department, speaking to students and professors at MGIMO.
According to him, “it is no coincidence that now French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Cyrus Starmer and some other European figures, a few months ago, when there was another bloody outbreak of violence, condemned and said that we will definitely recognize a Palestinian state when we come to the UN General Assembly.“
“I have a question: “What don't you recognize right away if you decide to do it?“ I have only one answer - they are counting on the fact that as long as they threaten to recognize a Palestinian state, they will have nothing to recognize, that's all,”, Lavrov said. And he concluded: “So there is obvious duplicity here.“
According to him, Israel's security is difficult to guarantee at the expense of the rights of the Palestinians.
“In our opinion, it is difficult to guarantee Israel's security not only by violating the security of the Palestinians - it is about the indivisibility of security - but also by guaranteeing Israel's security by eliminating the right of the Palestinians to their own state“, said the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, speaking to students and professors at MGIMO. “We, together with our Israeli colleagues, have long, even in better times, before the current bloody events, spoken and defended the idea that without the creation of a Palestinian state, extremism based on a sense of injustice committed against the Palestinians will be fueled“, Lavrov explained.
The minister assured that Moscow has always understood Israel's concern for its security. “And the decision to create two states - Israel and Palestine - was accompanied by the phrase that they should be created in such a way that they coexist in security, good neighborliness and many, many other things. But we fell into, you know, such a trap. Without a Palestinian state, stability in the region is hardly possible, and they do not want to create it, because Israel says that this will threaten its security“, the head of the Foreign Ministry concluded.