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Lavrov says West does nothing to settle Middle East crises

The minister said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres could more actively promote the Middle East settlement

MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday said Western countries don’t make any efforts to resolve crises in the Middle East, instead taking on the goal to defeat Russia.

"Speaking about the Arab world, one can’t fail to mention the obvious dissatisfaction of our colleagues about the fact that the West, while making demands regarding Ukraine, is doing nothing at all with respect to the Palestinian issue. That causes very deep regret that Palestine and the Libyan settlement, which has been treading water after the West ruined Libya, the problems remaining with Iraq and other regional issues, of course, have secondary - or even lesser - importance for the West compared with the idea that Russia has to be exhausted and be dealt a strategic defeat," he said at a news conference dedicated to an overview of Russian diplomacy in 2022.

Lavrov said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres could more actively promote the Middle East settlement.

"This is where the UN secretary-general could be a little more active as one of the members of the Quartet of international mediators [on the Middle East settlement] to promote this agenda," he added.

The minister said Russia is actively cooperating with the countries of the region.

"We appreciate the fact that our colleagues see that we have a different position. We are not abandoning our efforts on the Palestinian issue, on Syria, on the Libyan settlement, on Iraq. We are now planning high-level contacts with Iraqi colleagues," he said.