UNITED NATIONS, April 15. /TASS/. Russia considers unacceptable the silence of a number of Western countries in the UN Security Council on the causes of the Middle East conflict escalation, the country’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said.
"Many of you today have not found the courage to point out directly that the current outbreak of escalation in the Middle East is unfolding against the backdrop of West Jerusalem’s operation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank of the Jordan River, which has been going on for more than half a year and is unprecedented in terms of the scale of casualties," he said at the UN Security Council meeting convened in connection with Iran's attack on Israeli military facilities.
"We consider such silence on the root causes of the current crisis unacceptable, especially against the background of the situation around Iran, which is being escalated by our American and other colleagues," Nebenzya pointed out.
"We urge all parties involved in the incident to exercise restraint in the conditions of the situation on the ground in the Middle East region heated to the limit and obvious risks of expanding the conflict into a regional confrontation," he said.
The diplomat pointed out that all existing problems should be solved exclusively by political and diplomatic means. "We also consider it important that constructively minded international actors contribute to this," Nebenzya added.