UNITED NATIONS, September 28. /TASS/. The mass punishment of the Palestinians, which Israel initiated after the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack, is unacceptable. It is necessary to put an end to this punitive action, carried out with US-made weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, speaking at the UN General Assembly session.
"There is no justification to the acts of terrorism that the Israelis were subjected to on October 8 last year - and there can be none," Lavrov noted. "But everyone who still has a feeling of compassion, are outraged that the October tragedy is being used for collective punishment of Palestinians, which resulted in an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe."
"It is necessary to immediately put an end to the murder of Palestinian civilians with US-made weapons," the Russian minister underscored.
Lavrov also said that a group of countries is trying to embroil Iran into a conflict in the Middle East in an attempt to provoke a major war in the region.
At a news conference to sum up the results of his participation in the High-Level Week of the 79th UN General Assembly, Lavrov said that during his meetings on the sidelines of the event, "special attention was, of course, paid to outbreaks of conflict in the Palestinian territories, in Lebanon and Syria, and also to problems on the Iraqi territory."
"Attempts to embroil Iran [into these conflicts] in order to provoke a major war in the Middle East [were also in the spotlight]," he said.
The top Russian diplomat said that during his bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the High-Level Week, he also discussed conflicts in Afghanistan and the Sahara-Sahel region, as well as in Sudan and in other African countries.
"Of course, we seized the opportunity to present our present-day vision on events related to the Ukrainian crisis," Lavrov added.