Israel unlikely to achieve security even by destroying Hamas — Kremlin aide

Russian Politics & Diplomacy November 27, 2023, 12:08

"The Palestinian problem is unrivaled in terms of its ability to spread to the global level," Yury Ushakov said

MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/. Israel will hardly be able to ensure its security even by drowning the Gaza Strip in blood, Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov has said.

"Even by decapitating Hamas and even by drowning the Gaza Strip in blood it will hardly be possible to ensure Israel's security. After some time, the tide of hatred and terrorism may rise again with renewed force. This cannot be ruled out," Ushakov said, speaking at the Primakov Readings academic and expert forum.

Ushakov recalled that back in 2009, Yevgeny Primakov, who served as Russia's prime minister from September 1998 to May 1999 and was foreign minister before that, "as one of the world's most authoritative specialists on the regional affairs, published an article" on the Palestinian-Israeli problem.

"The Palestinian problem is unrivaled in terms of its ability to spread to the global level," Ushakov said about one of the central ideas of that article.

"Israel's military measures fail to narrow the activity of terrorist organizations. On the contrary, they expand it," Ushakov said, citing Primakov's article. He believes that "this is entirely appropriate for the current tragedy in the Gaza Strip as well."

"Primakov farsightedly pointed out that there were two options that would certainly thwart attempts to achieve a settlement on the Palestinian track through the creation of peacefully existing states - Jewish and Palestinian," the Kremlin aide said. One option, he said is to "give the parties to the conflict a free hand to try to reach agreement on their own, without the participation of external forces."

"The other is the monopolization of the mediator’s mission by the United States," Ushakov noted. "It has happened exactly as Primakov predicted," the Russian presidential aide stated.

TASS is the general information partner of the Primakov Readings conference.

Read more on the site →