Lavrov says West to blame for 'escalation' in Ukraine and Palestine

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
28 Dec 2023 08:56
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underscores in an interview that the West "keeps clinging to its diminishing dominance" but will eventually have to accept the reality of a new world order where it does not dominate.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attends a meeting with his Indian counterpart in Moscow, Russia, December 27, 2023. (AP)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, in an interview with TASS, on Thursday, that the West has caused havoc and ignited conflicts around the world to "achieve their own goals."

"The world remains in a turbulent state. And one of the reasons for that is the ruling class in the West, which is provoking crises thousands of kilometers away from their own borders in order to achieve their own goals at the expense of other nations," the Foreign Minister said.

According to the Russian top diplomat, the "West keeps clinging to its diminishing dominance, no one is safe from its geopolitical tricks," stressing that global awareness has been increasing worldwide which will, eventually, force Western countries to "accept the realities of a multipolar world, and that’s when all issues will be resolved on the basis of a balance of interests.”

Moreover, throughout the interview, Lavrov underscored that the West is to be blamed for the "escalation" in the Middle East, more specifically, in Palestine, the same way that the West's obsession with the "enlargement of NATO by transforming Ukraine into an anti-Russian bulwark" is what instigated the war in Ukraine.

Lavrov accuses 'external forces' of sabotaging Gaza ceasefire

This comes a week after Lavrov, during a plenary session of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum in Morocco, pointed fingers at unnamed "external forces" for trying to take advantage of the war on Gaza to open the door for a wider war.

"It has become obvious that some external forces are seeking to exploit this new flare-up in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to further their interests and ignite a regional war," he said, adding that a much bigger conflict will ensue, dragged on by the United States and its allies.

Lavrov blamed the West for the two decades of instability in the Middle East, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands, alongside the displacement of many others.

This follows a condemnation by Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia, who declared that the US stands as the sole state opposing a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.