🇷🇺🇯🇴 On September 23, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Ayman Safadi on the sidelines of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly.

During the meeting, the parties discussed key issues on the #MiddleEast agenda with an emphasis on problems related to the Palestinian-Israeli and Syrian settlement processes, as well as developments in Iraq. The parties stressed their intention to continue to coordinate approaches to resolving conflicts and crises that have a negative impact on regional and global stability and security in accordance with the basic norms of international law.

🤝 In addition to this, core issues related to supporting the further development of comprehensive Russian-Jordanian cooperation were discussed, including maintaining a regular political dialogue at the high and the highest level.

#RussiaJordan #UNGA77

🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry's Deputy Spokesperson Alexey Zaytsev (Moscow, October 20, 2023)

🔹 FM Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔹 Palestinian-Israeli conflict
🔹 Ukrainian crisis
🔹 Russia denounces Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
🔹 Poland’s visa-related harassment of the Russian civil society
🔹 Russophobic action of the Australian authorities
🔹 50th anniversary of oil production limits imposed by OPEC countries to protest US policy in the Middle East
🔹 BRICS+ International Municipal Forum
🔹 75 years of United Nations’ work in Moscow

and much more...

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#MiddleEast

We are prioritising steps to provide security to Russians in Israel and in the Palestinian territories. We are in constant contact with them via Russian diplomatic missions and consulates and are working with our partners to organise the safe evacuation of Russian citizens, who have applied for help, from the zone of hostilities. As of today, about 1,000 persons, including citizens of CIS countries and their family members, have submitted relevant applications.

We want to emphasise once again that the current spiral in the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation is the direct consequence of the West disregarding the existing UN and Security Council resolutions and actually blocking the performance of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators, which includes Russia, the US, the EU and the UN.

#Ukraine

Today, the Ukrainian neo-Nazis follow in the footsteps of their ideological predecessors from the Third Reich. They deliver artillery and missile strikes at peaceful Russian cities and villages with particular cynicism, causing pain and suffering to local residents and ruthlessly destroying civilian infrastructure. It is not accidental that the notorious Nazi from the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician), Yaroslav Hunka, described Vladimir Zelensky as a “worthy successor” to his cause.

🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, October 26, 2023)

🔹 FM Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔹 Palestinian-Israeli conflict
🔹 Ukrainian crisis
🔹 EU industrial production
🔹 The threat of expulsion of Russian citizens living in Latvia
🔹 Moldova

and much more...

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#Ukraine

On October 23, 2023, The Washington Post carried a detailed story about the involvement of Ukrainian security services in the assassination of Darya Dugina, the explosions of the Crimean Bridge and other crimes.

According to the paper, since 2015, the CIA spent tens of millions of dollars on training Ukrainian security services and turning them into America’s allies in the fight against Russia.

It also mentions the UK’s MI-6 in the same context. Those Anglo-Saxon intelligence services reportedly established the No 5 and No 6 divisions at the Security Service of Ukraine. Both divisions were directly subordinated to them and were expected to focus on active measures (acts of sabotage) against Russia.

According to the publication, the CIA was behind Ukrainian security services’ operations all the time. The Ukrainian side coordinated all high-profile operations with the CIA which provided the perpetrators with all the essentials.

#MiddleEast

We are deeply concerned about the reported geographical expansion of fighting in the West Bank. The potential for conflict is growing along the Blue Line on the Lebanese-Israeli border. We are watching with concern as Israel steps up air strikes on Syrian territory. We are extremely concerned about the military manoeuvres by non-regional parties in the Eastern Mediterranean. These factors, along with the increasing bellicose rhetoric from various sides, heighten the risks of the conflict escalating into a region-wide one.

In this regard, we reiterate the need for an early ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors for evacuation and delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. We also reiterate our call for the release of the hostages.

🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, November 2, 2023)

🔹 Ukrainian crisis
🔹 Palestinian-Israeli conflict
🔹 Israeli airstrikes on a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip
🔹 Situation in Moldova
🔹 Statement by International Olympic Committee on Israeli athletes
🔹 International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists

and much more...

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#MiddleEast

The situation in the conflict zone has taken an extremely negative turn with the confrontation entering a new dangerous phase on October 28, 2023. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) launched a ground operation in Gaza Strip

The number of victims is growing exponentially. The humanitarian disaster has been gaining momentum against the backdrop of the military escalation. It is in its early days and its ramifications will be felt for years and decades to come unless concrete steps are made to de-escalate.

There is a growing risk of this conflict spilling over across the region. The provocative military manoeuvring by the US in the Eastern Mediterranean is having a destabilising effect on the Middle East.

#IOC

We have noted the statement by a representative of the International Olympic Committee, who urged officials and athletes to not allow discrimination against Israel against the backdrop of the Gaza Strip conflict. It was said that the IOC adheres to the concept of individual responsibility and that athletes cannot be responsible for the actions of their governments. It was stated as an official position of the International Olympic Committee.

We cannot help but regard this statement as out of touch with the IOC’s deeply discriminatory attitude towards Russian and Belarusian athletes.

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We strongly insist that the rights of all Russian and Belarusian athletes who suffered from the IOC’s deliberate politicisation of the sports agenda be restored.

🎙 Briefing by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, November 9, 2023)

🔹 FM Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔹 Palestinian-Israeli conflict
🔹 Ukrainian crisis
🔹 Rise of nationalism in the world
🔹 Antisemitism in the United States
🔹 Nord Stream terrorist attack
🔹 Treaties to which the US is not a party
🔹 Moldova
🔹 Russophobia in Latvia
🔹 Tokyo Trial

and more...

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#Ukraine

Not only have the people across the ocean opted to ignore the cruelty with which the Kiev regime has been using American weapons against civilians, but they even view this as something rather normal. We used to say that they probably failed to notice these developments. But no, they believe them to be the norm. This is the new normal for them, together with the fact that supplying more and more weapons to Ukrainian neo-Nazis causes hostilities to escalate and increasingly draws the United States into the conflict in and around Ukraine.

#MiddleEast

The Gaza Strip is under a ruthless blockade, which primarily affects the civilians. Gaza is experiencing a critical lack of fuel, food, and medications. The clean water shortage is fraught with a sharp deterioration in the sanitary and epidemiological situation.

We appreciate the initiation of the process for evacuating foreign nationals from the Gaza Strip to Egypt through the Rafah Border Crossing.

Along with addressing immediate de-escalation tasks, we consider it important to take steps to lay the foundation for relaunching a full-fledged political process in order to provide a comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue on a recognised international legal basis.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview for the RT channel (Moscow, November 15, 2023)

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#MiddleEast

• The cessation of hostilities and stopping of violence, is of huge importance to the civilians, but in historical terms, in sustainable settlement terms the second aspect of this problem, which is much more important, the creation of the Palestinian state is unavoidable.

• Of course, these days, Washington is highly ideologized. And anything coming from Russia is taken as a hostile act, hostile initiative. But on substance, in practical terms, Washington doesn't want to tie Israel's hands.

• Americans say that some pro-Iranian armed groups in Syria and Iraq are trying to attack American military sites. This is reported by the media. There is nothing new in this because these groups believe that the presence of the United States in Syria is absolutely illegal and this is a statement of fact.

#RussiaAfrica

• The most popular topic at the 2nd #RussiaAfrica Summit was that Africa does not want any longer to be a very rich continent which does not enjoy the richness it possesses, like in the colonial times, when most of the resources are being pumped raw into developed countries and then processed and sold with huge profit.

#Eurasia

• The Eurasian continent, especially the Asian part of the Eurasian continent, becomes a powerhouse of the world economy. Integration structures existing in Eurasia established close links between themselves.

• Greater Eurasian Partnership must be open to all countries and organizations situated on the Eurasian continent, leaving the door open [even] to those who believe that they are masters of the universe.

#MultipolarWorld

• The process of shaping the new world order will take time. It might be a historic era, a whole historic era.

• The reform of the United Nations is a must, if only because multipolarity brought to the key positions many new players who are not now represented in the Security Council as permanent members.

📰 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s written interview with RIA Novosti (December 31, 2023)

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#RussiaUSA

Our readiness to restore a full-fledged dialogue with the United States should not be taken for granted. Russia-US relations have become strained to the maximum due to Washington’s strategic objective of inflicting a decisive blow on Russia. We will only be able to develop a formula for peaceful coexistence and cooperation in certain areas when Washington acknowledges our core national interests and engages in sincere negotiations.

#INF

If the United States does not take any extraordinary steps to exert pressure through other means, Russia will not be the first to deploy missiles that were previously prohibited under the INF Treaty.

However, judging by the preparations made by the Pentagon, practical actions by the Americans to deploy ground-launched intermediate and short-range missiles in different regions of the world should not take long. Therefore, the time when we will have to make necessary political decisions is fast approaching.

#MiddleEast

Russia consistently advocates for the initiation of Palestinian-Israeli talks. The lack of Palestinian unity remains one of the obstacles to this.

We also assist our Palestinian friends in finding a solution. We have provided them with a venue for holding meetings in Russia. We call for unification based on the platform of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

#KievCrimes

The crimes of the Kiev regime are already under investigation. Russian law enforcement authorities are meticulously recording and documenting the atrocities committed by Ukrainian neo-Nazis, which extend beyond the timeframe of the special military operation.

Based on the evidence gathered by the Investigative Committee, the courts of the Russian Federation have already sentenced over 200 members of Ukrainian armed groups to long prison terms for their crimes. The remaining criminals will face the same fate and will be held accountable.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions following a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine and an open debate on “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question,” (New York, January 24, 2024)

Key talking points:

• Terrorist attack by the Kiev regime on Il-76 plane
• Middle East
• Prospects of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement
• Ukraine
• Double standards of Western media
• Russia-US relations
• Nuclear security
• Korean Peninsula

💬 Sergey Lavrov: I am compelled to begin by stating yet another fact of the Kiev regime’s use of terrorist methods.

A terrorist attack was perpetrated on January 24, at 11:15 am Moscow time, resulting in the downing of a Russian Il-76 cargo plane in the Belgorod Region. The aircraft was en route from the Moscow Region to Belgorod, carrying 65 prisoners from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Three Russian officers and a crew of six people accompanied them. All of them died. The Ukrainian prisoners of war were being taken to the Belgorod Region for a prisoner exchange agreed between Moscow and Kiev.

Instead, Ukraine targeted this aircraft from the Kharkov Region using surface-to-air missiles, causing a fatal strike. <...>

#US #MiddleEast

As for the present crisis, everyone seems to have a similar understanding of the consequences of US policy in the region. None of the reckless attempts Washington has engaged in over the last few decades to defend its “core security interests” ten thousand miles across the Atlantic led to a situation where people’s lives improved in a country that the US attacked.

#US #Santions

They should not assume that just because they are strong, because they have the dollar, they can use it to “strangle” others: disconnect them from the SWIFT system or deny them access to the IMF and World Bank loans at whim. The US actually invented the system and made the world accept it.

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🎙 Interview with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for 'Bridges to the East' documentary (Moscow, August 31, 2024)

Key talking points

#Syria

• In 2011, the United States decided to send the Syrian people along the same path as Iraq and Libya which countries they had devastated by their aggressive policies. We were strongly against seeing this scenario replay. In 2015, by President Putin’s decision, we sent a contingent of our armed forces to defend the Syrian Arab Republic against direct aggression.

❗️ The US invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein gave rise to ISIS, which posed a real threat to Syria’s existence.

• When the Russian armed forces moved into Syria, ISIS was on the outskirts of Damascus, and Western countries, led by the United States, were attempting to assert their dominance in eastern Syria. We stabilised the situation and since then most of Syria’s territory has been controlled by the legitimate government.

#Iraq

• In 2003, led by the United States, NATO invaded Iraq under a false pretext, a false flag. Later, the Westerners admitted there was no reason for an invasion. No need to eliminate weapons of mass destruction whatsoever. They broadcasted to the whole world the hanging of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, allegedly for possessing weapons of mass destruction. This is a disgusting turn of events.

#MiddleEast #Libya

• Western Jerusalem is ramping up military actions against the entities that they believe support the Palestinians and do so with an extremist slant, namely, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine. Israel wants to destroy the latter which is an exercise in futility. The sides must come to terms instead. Hamas is part of the Palestinian people, just as Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese people.

• Lebanon remains in a situation where it is facing new challenges largely due to the crisis in the Gaza Strip and, more broadly, the Palestinian territories.

• We remain in contact with our Israeli colleagues through the Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry, and the respective security councils from both countries. We are trying to drive home the futility of the attempts to address issues by force without considering alternative paths.

• Washington stands behind every decision made by Israel. The US blocks all agreements at the UN Security Council that would lead to a full and permanent ceasefire. The Americans continue to supply weapons to Western Jerusalem, which are then used to commit even more violence against the Palestinian people. Over 40,000 civilians (!) have died in the ten months of hostilities since October 7, 2023 which is a horrifying number.

#Iran

• Iran is outright unwilling to fall for a provocation or to get embroiled into any kind of large-scale hostilities. Iran is facing provocations. The assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran during the inauguration ceremony of the new president is, without a doubt, a provocation.

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🎙 Excerpts and key points from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answers to media questions during a news conference following the 7th Russia-GCC Ministerial Meeting for Strategic Dialogue (Riyadh, September 9, 2024)

#Ukraine

• We have never taken the “Zelensky formula” seriously and only marvelled that there are still people ready to buy it. Of course, this happens under the West’s pressure.

• But territories are neither here nor there. We just wanted the people, who are an inalienable part of the Russian world and the Russian culture, language, history, and religion, to be treated as human beings as required under international law, numerous conventions on human rights and minority rights, and primarily the UN Charter.

• No success will be achieved unless we get to the root of this problem. In this context, we appreciate the global security initiative announced by PRC President Xi Jinping, which says that it is necessary to start analysing any conflict from its prime causes.

• You should understand that it is not about the meeting location and participants, but about issues to be discussed. Meeting to talk about calls for a ceasefire and then territorial exchanges simply doesn’t cut it. Once again, the problem is not about territories but people’s rights.

As soon as we see the determination to protect human rights, a policy that the West always boasts about when addressing any issue (except this particular one), I am confident we will easily agree on the location and time of the meeting. But first we need to understand what exactly we are going to discuss.

#GEP

• At today’s meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council, we discussed this Eurasia-based organisation’s promising potential for promoting the continent-wide processes and contributing to what President Vladimir Putin referred to as the Greater Eurasian Partnership.

• We want the nations of the Eurasian continent – the largest, fastest-growing, and most resource-rich part of the world – to decide their fate on their own.

#MiddleEast

• Washington wants to preserve its monopoly over any processes in the Middle East. We know many cases when this position has resulted in failure. Today’s discussion with our colleagues from the Persian Gulf’s Arab countries has fully confirmed us in this belief.

• An immediate ceasefire is necessary. Meanwhile, it is important to remember that the problem stems from the fact that the Palestinian state issue has not been resolved for almost 80 years.

#BRICS

• BRICS has doubled its membership from five to ten. It has already received more than 30 applications requesting either membership or special relations. This process is the main driving force behind the formation of a multipolar world order.

• BRICS is following an upward trajectory in its development, and this trend will only grow stronger. The Russian BRICS Chairmanship is greatly contributing to this.

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