MINSK, January 16. /TASS/. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has dubbed the situation in the Middle East a "terrible humanitarian disaster."

"Look at what is happening in the Middle East. This is a terrible humanitarian disaster," he said at a meeting to draft the National Security Concept and new Military Doctrine of Belarus. "Please note that the threat to use nuclear weapons came almost immediately after the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And, as usual, there were no sanctions from the ‘civilized’ West, but purely formal statements as if nothing had happened," the president added.

News agency BelTA, citing Lukashenko, noted that "the key transformations of modern risks, national security challenges and threats are detailed in the Concept and Military Doctrine, and many of the assessments and forecasts given in the documents are already coming true." "Unfortunately, we have returned to the times when military force is the main argument in building international relations," Lukashenko said.

The situation in the Middle East escalated sharply on October 7 of last year after militants from the Gaza Strip-based Hamas staged surprise incursions from Gaza into borderline Israeli communities, killing residents of Israeli kibbutzim and taking numerous others as hostages. The Hamas radicals called this attack a response to the aggressive actions of the Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel has announced a complete blockade of Gaza and launched retaliatory strikes and a ground military operation against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave as well as strikes on parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported in the West Bank. After the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip on October 7 last year, the Yemeni rebel movement Ansar Allah (Houthis) claimed that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory and would not allow ships associated with it to pass through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until the operation in the Palestinian enclave stopped.

At the end of February 2023, the Security Council of Belarus approved the draft of an updated National Security Concept and ordered the country's Defense Ministry to start elaborating on a new military doctrine. The documents must be adopted by the All-Belarusian People's Assembly at a meeting to be held at the end of April 2024.