VIENNA, December 20. /TASS/. The West exposed its hypocritical policy of double standards by ignoring an initiative to invite a Palestinian representative to a meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC), Konstantin Gavrilov, head of Russia’s delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, said in an interview with TASS.

"When tensions in the Middle East reached their peak, the Canadian FSC chairmanship invited Israel’s representative to the OSCE to provide a review of the situation in the conflict zone. In response, we put forward our principled position, pointing out that all parties involved in the confrontation had the right to express their assessment of the current developments. This is the way it has always been at the UN platform," he noted.

According to Gavrilov, the FSC met the initiative with "stony silence," which once again exposed the West’s hypocritical policy of double standards.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again on October 7 after militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of border communities and taking over 200 people as hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel announced a total blockade of Gaza and launched a military operation in the Strip. Separate strikes are also being carried out on border areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.