United Nations – Israel’s security can be ensured only through a lasting solution to the Palestinian problem and Russia is sparing no effort to achieve it, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on Wednesday.
“As for tomorrow of this conflict, it is time to think about the day after tomorrow. Many questions arise about ways of reviving Gaza and about the future lasting solution to the Palestinian problem in general, since it is impossible to ensure Israel’s security without resolving this problem,” he said at a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East. “Russia is actively working in this direction.”
“The upgraded mechanism of external backing for agreeing conditions for a lasting, stable settlement on the basis of the two-state solution should be really representative and include regional players who understand better than all how to reach a solution that would rest on international law,” he said. “We are ready for such work after the flame of the current regional escalation is put out. But, regrettably, it will not be soon.”
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after fighters from the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.
