00:00stripping of civilians of human dignity.
00:04Collective punishment against all Palestinians is unacceptable.
00:09I've hit figures of the dead civilians,
00:1141,000 in one year after the 7th of October.
00:17This is double, more than double the number of civilians
00:23killed on both sides of the conflict in Ukraine
00:27in 10 years.
00:30And I'll give the floor to His Excellency,
00:32Mr. Sergey Lavrov,
00:34Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
00:37Thank you, Madam President.
00:44Distinguished Ministers, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
00:47we thank the Secretary General for his assessment
00:50of the situation in the Middle East
00:52with a focus on the unprecedented level
00:55of confrontation on the occupied Palestinian territory
00:58and on the Lebanon-Israeli border area.
01:03This is a conflict which is also having consequences
01:06in other parts of the region,
01:08with fallout being felt in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Oman.
01:13The vast area of the entire Middle East and North Africa
01:17continue to have hotbeds of instability persisting.
01:21The spiraling violence has gone far beyond the area
01:24of the Arab-Israeli confrontation,
01:26destabilizing the situation
01:27not just in the above-mentioned regions
01:29but also in the Mediterranean Sea,
01:31the Persian Gulf, and in North Africa as a whole.
01:35The root cause of these crises has been and remains
01:40the fact that the Palestinian issue remains unresolved.
01:44At the epicenter of the current confrontation,
01:46there is the Gaza Strip, where what began in October 2023,
01:51I refer to the latest wave of military operations,
01:57this has become the most brutal and lengthiest
02:00in the entire succession of Arab-Israeli wars.
02:03The number of the dead has surpassed 41,000.
02:06The number of the wounded and missing persons
02:10is nearing 100,000.
02:12The majority of victims are civilians in the Strip,
02:16including many women, children, and the elderly.
02:19Amid the military operations
02:21and Israel's establishment of a blockade of the Strip,
02:25the situation is expeditiously deteriorating.
02:29This Strip has become the largest open-air prison
02:32from which people simply cannot flee.
02:35According to the President of the ICRC,
02:36Madam Spolarich, the Israeli military operation
02:40underwent a full paradigm shift towards,
02:42I quote, dehumanization
02:44and the stripping of civilians of human dignity.
02:51I would like everybody to recall our steadfast position,
02:55which remains unchanged.
02:56There is no justification
02:57for the terrorist attack on 7 October.
02:59However, collective punishment
03:01against all Palestinians is unacceptable.
03:05I recalled the figures of the dead civilians,
03:0941,000 in one year after the 7th of October.
03:15This is double, more than double the number of civilians
03:21killed on both sides of the conflict in Ukraine
03:25in 10 years after the brutal coup,
03:29which took place in February 2014.
03:33In one year, two times more Palestinians were killed
03:37than in 10 years of civilian casualties
03:41on both sides in Ukraine.
03:46Despite the fact that both the Security Council
03:49and the General Assembly adopted a number of resolutions
03:51with call for a ceasefire
03:53and the establishment of sustained humanitarian access
03:55to Gaza, the Israeli army operation is ongoing.
03:59Ten days ago, the General Assembly
04:02adopted a resolution in support of the advisory opinion
04:06of the ICJ,
04:08which explicitly refers to the illegal nature
04:12of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands
04:14and the need to bring this to an end.
04:16The overwhelming majority of the Council's membership
04:19supported this initiative to achieve a just
04:23and lasting resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
04:27and for the exercise of the rights of the Palestinian people
04:31to establish their own independent state
04:34within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
04:40In this regard, we have categorical resolutions
04:45of the United Nations
04:46and our common objective of enforcement thereof.
04:51The fact that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
04:52remains unresolved is destabilizing,
04:55as I've already mentioned,
04:56is destabilizing the entire region.
04:59The unprecedented brutality and devastation
05:02of the consequences in Gaza
05:05has triggered a sharp escalation
05:08in the Lebanon-Israeli confrontation,
05:10and the images of the ongoing strikes along the blue line
05:14and within Lebanon and Israel
05:17have circulated around the world.
05:20The Middle East is at the precipice of a full-blown war,
05:24which, as it seems, some keenly wish to see transpire.
05:32On the 23rd of September alone,
05:33as a result of large-scale Israeli bombardment of Lebanon,
05:36at least 558 people died.
05:39This includes 50 children, 94 women.
05:43More than 1,600 people were wounded.
05:48According to the UNICEF mission in Lebanon,
05:52the UNICEF representative in Lebanon,
05:53in one day in Lebanon,
05:55more people were killed than in the past 11 months.
05:59The dead include two staff members
06:01of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees.
06:05Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes.
06:10We strongly condemn the actions of the Israeli side,
06:13which blatantly violates the sovereignty
06:15of the friendly country of Lebanon.
06:17The indiscriminate attacks whose casualties are civilians
06:22are categorically unacceptable.
06:24The path of war that was embraced by West Jerusalem
06:27will not allow it to return the displaced persons
06:30to the north of the country,
06:32nor will it ensure security in the Lebanon-Israeli border area.
06:36And this is attested to by the experience
06:38of the 2006 Israeli campaign,
06:41when even the vast arsenal of the most cutting-edge
06:45military equipment and weaponry
06:47did not result in Israel achieving the goals it set out.
06:50There's a need to immediately end the spiraling violence
06:54before the situation completely spirals out of control,
06:58which, as we see, some very much wish to see transpire
07:01to provoke a full-blown war.
07:03We call for an immediate cessation of hostilities,
07:06which will result in an end to further bloodshed
07:10and will create conditions
07:12for a diplomatic and political resolution.
07:15As I understand, just today, an order was issued to bomb Beirut.
07:22We consistently and steadfastly emphasize the need
07:26for the full comprehensive implementation
07:28of Security Council Resolution 1701.
07:31This resolution stipulates both Israel's obligations
07:34to end all offensive military operations,
07:37withdraw its troops from south Lebanon,
07:40and end the occupation of Lebanese lands.
07:43And it also stipulates the obligation of Hezbollah
07:46to withdraw all of its formations
07:49to the north of the Litani River.
07:52For our part, we are undertaking robust diplomatic efforts
07:56to deescalate the situation
07:59to prevent the most catastrophic scenario.
08:02We stand ready to cooperate with international
08:04and regional partners to that end.
08:07We believe that the security of any state
08:10must not be ensured at the expense
08:14of the security of others.
08:16We fully support UNIFIL,
08:19which plays a stabilizing role on the blue line.
08:23It is precisely the presence of peacekeepers
08:26that have, for a long time,
08:27reduced the risk of an outbreak
08:29of full-blown military confirmation.
08:31There is a need to scrupulously ensure the safety
08:34and security of blue helmets.
08:36Madam President, the Security Council
08:38is not merely a platform for exchanging views
08:41on the most pressing global issues.
08:44This is also the main body for the maintenance
08:47of international peace and security,
08:49a body that has a myriad of time-tested instruments
08:53to enforce its resolutions.
08:57The membership of the Security Council
08:58needs to place the interests of the peoples of Palestine
09:00and Israel above the short-sighted
09:04political calculations of certain actors
09:07and to demand an immediate ceasefire,
09:10the release of all illegally detained persons,
09:14and the full pledge to ensuring of humanitarian access
09:18to those in need.
09:19The violators of Security Council resolutions
09:22need to be strictly held accountable,
09:25without which our resolutions will remain dead letter.
09:30I wish to turn to the representative
09:32of the United States.
09:34The choice is yours.
09:35Either you continue to block the work of the Security Council
09:37or you stand on the side of the world,
09:41on the side of the international community,
09:43and demand an end to the war.
09:46Without your comprehensive support for Israel,
09:49the conflict could end quickly and effectively.
09:55This would help to establish conditions
09:57for a return to peace talks on the establishment
10:00of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state,
10:03coexisting in peace and security with Israel.
10:07Negotiations, of course, need to be carried out
10:10under the aegis of the international community
10:12without manipulation by any side.
10:15We have seen all of this.
10:17This all results in catastrophe.
10:20Thank you for your attention.
10:22I thank His Excellency Mr. Loro for his statement.
10:27Don't miss out.
10:28Log on to OneIndia.com for more updates.
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