Statement by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a UNSC meeting on the Middle East, including the Palestinian question
Madam President,
Esteemed ministers,
Colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
We are grateful to the Secretary-General for providing his assessments of the situation in the Middle East with a focus on the unprecedentedly intense level of confrontation in the occupied Palestinian territories and the Lebanon-Israeli border.
This conflict resonates in other parts of this region, including the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Areas of instability remain in the vast swathes of land in the Middle East and North Africa. The spiral of violence has reached far beyond the Arab-Israeli confrontation zone and is destabilising the situation not only in the above regions, but in the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf, and North Africa as well. The unresolved Palestinian issue remains at the heart of these crisis processes.
The epicentre of the ongoing confrontation includes Gaza, where another phase of escalation, which started in October 2023, has become the bloodiest outburst of hostilities in a long series of Arab-Israeli wars. The number of fatalities exceeds 41,000, with nearly 100,000 injured or unaccounted for. The majority of casualties are civilians from that enclave, including many women, children, and elderly. Amidst ongoing hostilities and Israel’s blockade of the enclave, the situation is rapidly deteriorating.
The sector has become the largest open-air prison which people are unable to escape. According to Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross Mirjana Spoljaric, Israel’s military operation has completely reshaped the conflict towards “dehumanisation of … civilian populations.”
I would like everyone to keep in mind our unwavering position. There may be no justification for the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack. However, subjecting all Palestinians to a collective punishment is unacceptable as well. I have already mentioned the number of civilian deaths which is 41,000 during the 12 months that followed October 7, 2023. This is 2.5 times more than the number of civilian casualties on both sides during the Ukraine conflict which started after the February 2014 bloody coup and has lasted ten years. In just one year, twice as many Palestinians have been killed as the total number of civilian casualties on both sides in Ukraine in ten years.
Despite the Security Council and the General Assembly adopting several resolutions that call for a ceasefire and the establishment of sustainable humanitarian access to Gaza, the Israeli army continues its operation. On September 18, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution supporting the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, which talks without equivocation about the illegal nature of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian lands and the need to end it. The overwhelming majority of the Council members supported this initiative which is designed to achieve a fair and long-term settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and thus enabling the Palestinians to exercise their right to their own independent state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. The UN was clear about this matter in its resolutions, and our collective goal is to see them to completion.
The unresolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict destabilises the entire region. The unprecedentedly bitter and devastating crisis around Gaza has catalysed an abrupt escalation of the Lebanon-Israel face-off. The entire world has seen footage of shelling continuing unabated along the Blue Line and deep into the territories of Lebanon and Israel. The Middle East has once again found itself on the brink of a big war, which, it appears, someone is eager to see break out.
On September 23 alone, at least 558 people were killed, including 50 children and 94 women, and over 1,600 were injured following barrages of Israeli bombings of the Lebanese territory. According to the UNICEF office in Lebanon, more people were killed in that country in one day than in the past 11 months. Two UNHCR staff members are among the dead. Tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes.
We strongly condemn what the Israeli side is doing as it continues to grossly violate the sovereignty of a friendly nation of Lebanon. Indiscriminate attacks that claim civilian lives are outright unacceptable. The path of war chosen by West Jerusalem will not help it bring internally displaced persons back to the north of the country, nor will it ensure security along the Lebanon-Israel border. The 2006 Israeli campaign, where the entire arsenal of the most advanced military equipment and weapons could not help Israel achieve its objectives, is a stark case in point.
It is imperative to put an immediate stop to the cycle of violence before the situation spirals out of control, which is something someone is clearly waiting to happen in an attempt to provoke a big war. We call for an immediate cessation of hostilities to prevent further bloodshed and to create proper conditions for a political and diplomatic settlement.
Today, orders were issued to bomb Beirut. We consistently and unwaveringly base our approach on the need for a full and comprehensive implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701, which lays out Israel’s commitments to cease its offensive military operations, withdraw its armed forces from southern Lebanon, and end the occupation of Lebanese lands, as well as Hezbollah’s commitment to withdraw its formations north of the Litani River.
On our part, we are deploying extensive diplomatic efforts in order to de-escalate the situation and to avert the extreme catastrophic scenario. We stand ready to coordinate our efforts with our international and regional partners in order to achieve these goals. We believe that the security of any state should not come at the expense of the security of others.
We are fully supportive of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, which plays a stabilising role along the Blue Line. The presence of peacekeepers has long alleviated the risks of a full-on armed confrontation. It is critical to ensure the security of the “blue helmets” without fail.
Madam President,
The Security Council is more than a platform for exchanging views on the most pressing global issues. It is the primary body in charge of maintaining international peace and security that possesses a set of time-tested tools to enforce its decisions.
Council members must prioritise the interests of the peoples of Palestine and Israel and put them above the self-serving political plans entertained by certain political figures and demand an immediate ceasefire, the release of all illegally detained persons, and the full and unfettered access to humanitarian aid. Violators of Security Council resolutions should see rigorous measures applied to them, without which the Council’s decisions will continue to remain on paper.
We would like to specifically address this issue to US representatives. The choice is yours: either you continue to block the Security Council’s operations, or you take the side of peace, the international community, and demand an end to the war. Without the comprehensive support you provide to Israel, the conflict could be ended quickly and effectively. This would help create the conditions for a return to peace talks about the establishment of an independent sovereign Palestinian state that coexists in peace and security with Israel.
The talks should be sponsored by the international community without any one country monopolising the process. We’ve all seen that before, and it has always led to a disaster.
