Russia: Arab-Israeli conflict developing into 'major regional war'

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday that the Arab-Israeli conflict is developing into a "major regional war."

Zakharova said the UN has the potential to stop the conflict.

"If we speak about the UN's potential, it has it. The unprecedented bloodshed that has been going on for almost a year in the Arab-Israeli conflict zone, which is escalating into a major regional war, requires a consolidated response from the international community. Where else but at the UN should this reaction be worked out," she said in response to a question by Anadolu at a news conference briefing in Moscow.

Zakharova highlighted the broad consensus of states on the Palestinian issue, particularly at the UN General Assembly, noting that the de-escalation process is being blocked by Israel and the U.S.

"We have repeatedly noted that the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 deserve every condemnation, but a year later we see that it has become an occasion, literally a pretext for collective punishment not only of Palestinians in Gaza, where millions of Palestinians are being punished, tens of thousands of whom are already dead, but now also Lebanese, Syrians, Yemenis," she said.

Egypt, Jordan and others in the region were pushed to the forefront of the escalation, she noted.

Zakharova revealed that a took place earlier in the day with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassadors of Arab countries, who requested an urgent meeting.

The diplomats spoke "with horror" about the state of affairs, "not because of panic or fear," but because of their analysis as professionals about possible consequences, she said.

LARGEST NUMBER OF CIVILIANS, HUMANITARIAN WORKERS KILLED IN MODERN HISTORY

Zakharova said Israel's actions were "planned" with a series of political assassinations, the use of means of communication for the attacks and massive bombardments with further "cleansing" on the ground.

She cited the high number of victims for humanitarian workers, 300, and said it is "the largest loss of humanitarian workers in one conflict in modern history."

The official compared the death toll in Palestine and Ukraine, noting that the number killed and injured in the Gaza Strip alone "has long been more than twice the number of victims of the crisis in Ukraine in 10 years."

"Is it fair to pronounce these numbers? As a human being, I don't think that's fair. But we are engaged in discussing political issues that are constantly referred to in international organizations by Westerners, primarily the U.S. If people in Ukraine are important to them, then other people should be important too?" she asked.

The spokeswoman cited Washington's "failed policy" on the Middle East as the reason for the current escalation, noting that the U.S. blocks the work of the UN Security Council by vetoing resolutions that order Israel to stop the bloodshed, supplies Tel Aviv with weapons, ammunition and intelligence, "perfectly realizing that this will not lead to a settlement."

"In this case, we are dealing with the number of victims that is already unprecedented in modern history. And those people were killed not in some kind of natural disaster, when the earth opened up and the city left, leaving only ruins, as was the case with the devastating earthquakes in Türkiye. We are dealing exclusively with man-made, criminal incitement of the crisis," she said.

Russia is making and will continue to make every effort, primarily at the Security Council and the UN General Assembly, to prevent an expansion of confrontation, to create conditions to achieve lasting and long-term peace and security in the Middle East, the prerequisite of which is the creation of an independent Palestinian state based on a two-state model, coexisting in peace and security with Israel, Zakharova added.