Saying Israel ‘flattening’ Gaza, Russia urges international summit to solve conflict ‘forever’

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov leaves at the end of a news conference in Skopje, North Macedonia, on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023. (AP/Boris Grdanoski)
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov leaves at the end of a news conference in Skopje, North Macedonia, on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023. (AP/Boris Grdanoski)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is calling for an international conference of world powers and Arab representatives to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for good.

“The only way for this problem to be solved forever, and to be solved in a just way, is to hold an international conference with all five permanent members of the UN Security Council,” Lavrov tells Russian senators.

He says the conference should include representatives of countries from the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Gulf Cooperation Council. It’s unclear if he thinks Israel should be part of the conference.

The “continuing injustice against the Palestinian people, to whom the creation of a Palestinian state was promised… fuels very serious terrorist and extremist sentiments,” he says.

Lavrov also accuses Israel of “flattening” residential areas of Gaza, calls the situation there “horrific” and casts doubt on Israel’s claims of how many combatants it has killed versus civilians.

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