Russian foreign minister says creation of Palestinian state essential to avoid "relapses of violence"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov holds an annual press conference in Moscow, Russia, January 18, 2024. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pushed for the creation of a Palestinian state while speaking about the situation in Gaza during his annual press conference on Thursday.

“The main direction of efforts should be the creation of a Palestinian state in full compliance with the decisions of the Security Council – a state that, as written in these decisions, would exist in security and good neighborliness alongside Israel with other countries in the region,” Lavrov outlined.

“Without this, whatever happens, we will see relapses of the violence that is now seen in Gaza, because without the creation of a Palestinian state, the Palestinian people will continue to feel disadvantaged, will continue to live in conditions of inferior justice,” Lavrov argued, urging the need to “put an end to it.”

Lavrov said he “hopes the Israeli state will come to this conclusion eventually” but also said that he understood that was “unacceptable for Israel at the moment.”

“We can’t do anything apart from explain it to them,” Lavrov argued.

Lavrov then urged that mediation efforts by the US would not work unless there is “direct dialogue between the Palestinians and Israelis.”

“Assume that, so to speak, ‘grown men’ will somewhere agree on how the Palestinians will continue to live, and then will present it to them. It won’t be a success. Only direct dialogue that needs to be restored,” Lavrov outlined.