Lavrov Meets Secretary-General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Aboulgheit

Statement and brief presser

The meeting was already scheduled to occur; the timing is truly auspicious. Lots of effluent is flowing from Outlaw US Empire BigLie Media and its NATO affiliates as the neocons strive to blame Iran for the Zionists actions as b’s article at MoA today highlights. The air is now thickened as b now has another item related to Egypt’s claim that it warned the Zionists. Here’s its gist:

Egypt says Israel ignored warnings Hamas planned major offensive - Yedioth Ahranoth - Oct 9 2023

Egypt warned Israel of a pending Hamas attack ten days before terrorists breached the border and took control of military bases, and communities, killing more than 700 and taking 150 captive including women and children.

"We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the content of sensitive intelligence discussions with the media, told The Associated Press.

There’s a bit more but it’s Zionist bullshit. The assessment b makes is that the report will be denied, although Ha’aretz has already placed blame on Netanyahu, although how many other Zionist media outlets have is unknown. My assessment is the jibe makes sense politically from the Egyptian POV, although the actual content is false.

Lavrov’s statement echoes the MFA readout provided yesterday but adds more elements. Also notable is Global Times opinion piece having a similar theme. Lavrov:

Ladies and gentlemen,

We held talks with Secretary-General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Aboulgheit.

We discussed issues of strengthening practical cooperation between the Arab League and the Russian Federation. September of this year marked the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Russian Foreign Ministry and the General Secretariat of the Arab League. Today we reaffirmed that this document remains a solid basis for joint work and defines key guidelines for the further development of our productive relations.

An important mechanism of interaction is the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum (RAFS). Its previous meeting was held in Moscow in April 2019, but then the plans for the next meetings were adjusted due to COVID-19. Today, we expressed our mutual intention to hold another meeting in this format in December this year in Marrakech. We agreed that the dynamics of the development of the situation in the world and in the Middle East and North Africa makes the task of tightening our foreign policy coordination even more urgent, especially in light of what has been happening in Gaza and the Palestinian territories in general in recent days. We have substantiated our position on the unacceptability of any violence, damage, death of civilians (no matter which side they are on), and the taking of women and children hostage.

At the same time, the Arab League and the Russian Federation almost in unison called for an immediate cessation of all hostilities and violence and a transition to negotiations. We are deeply concerned about the deaths of hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians. The wounded number in the thousands. The Gaza Strip has been declared the target of Israel's retaliatory operations. There is also serious "unrest" in the West Bank. Conflict potential is also accumulating on the Lebanese-Israeli border. We condemn violence in all forms and manifestations. We call on everyone to firmly stand for the cessation of all hostilities. It is clear that we have heard the relevant statements by our Western colleagues condemning the attack against Israel. We hope that they will also call for a cessation of hostilities, but their position raises serious questions. Westerners say it should stop immediately, but "Israel must defeat and destroy the terrorists." This has happened many times in the history of the longest unresolved conflict on Earth. Many times such setbacks have occurred, and never after the situation has calmed down have the necessary efforts been made to address the root cause of stability in the Middle East. I am referring to the settlement of the Palestinian problem on the basis of a two-state formula in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions, the Oslo and Madrid agreements between the parties, as well as the Arab Peace Initiative. All these agreements and decisions provide for the creation of a Palestinian state that will live side by side with Israel in peace, security and cooperation.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin has repeatedly confirmed our interest in ensuring the security of Palestine and Israel. A large number of our compatriots live in Israel. We are concerned about their fate in the current situation and are doing everything we can to find out if there are people among them who need help. We will be ready to evacuate those who wish to leave for Russia. I would like to stress once again that we cannot agree with those who say that security should be ensured exclusively by the fight against extremism and terrorism. This undermines the UN decision to establish a Palestinian state.

I cannot fail to mention the destructive policy of the United States, which disrupts collective efforts within the framework of the quartet of international mediators: the UN, Russia, the United States and the EU. It is this mechanism that is recognized in the decisions of the UN Security Council as key. In order to use this channel and cooperate with the Arab League, the Americans are trying to monopolize mediation efforts and divert the dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis away from a political settlement and the creation of a Palestinian state. They are trying to replace the implementation of UN Security Council decisions with talk about alleviating the socioeconomic problems of the Palestinian population and establishing ongoing contacts between Palestinians and Israelis to ensure daily security on the ground. But the Americans prefer not to talk about the creation of a Palestinian state or the implementation of UN decisions.

We proceed from the premise that it is necessary to actively support the Arab League. Recently, this structure has announced many initiatives related to the return of Syria to the "Arab family." Normalization processes between Saudi Arabia and Iran are being established. There is little progress in the ties between Syria and Turkey. If all this is implemented in full, it will help stabilise the situation in the region. The "Palestinian problem" can no longer be postponed, and UN decisions must be implemented. We believe that the Arab League, by encouraging these processes and promoting practical steps towards the establishment of a Palestinian state, can play a decisive role in the comprehensive improvement of the regional situation. According to UN resolutions, Palestine will live side by side with Israel, ensuring each other's security and normal good-neighborliness. This is the surest way to solve the problems that flare up in this part of the world.

We also discussed the settlement of the problems of Syria and Libya, whose statehood was destroyed as a result of the NATO aggression in 2011. We talked about the need to help stop the bloodshed in Sudan. Here, too, the Arab League has ideas that we are ready to support.

At the request of our friends, we told them about the current state of affairs. In the situation around Ukraine, we have clarified our attitude to various calls to start negotiations. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has made our position clear on numerous occasions, including recently at the Valdai Forum. We have never refused to negotiate if it is offered on a serious basis and not in the form of ultimatums. We see Ukraine's categorical rejection of any dialogue except on the basis of the "Zelensky formula", which is a propaganda project that cannot be realized. I am grateful to my friend and colleague and give him the floor.

Question: Over the past year and a half, Russia has regularly raised the issue of supplying US and other NATO weapons to Ukraine, which then end up on the black market. A few days ago, US congressmen started talking about the fact that the weapons supplied by the West and the Biden administration to Vladimir Zelensky ended up in the Middle East and are being used to kill civilians. Do you think the White House has drawn conclusions?

Sergey Lavrov: It is difficult for me to speculate on what the White House can do. Over the past year and a half to two years, we have seen many actions and statements by the White House that do not fit into the logic promoted by President Vladimir Putin and the Foreign Ministry for Foreign Affairs: the search for mutually acceptable solutions to any international problem. The White House has declared the task of inflicting a "strategic defeat" on us (this is supposedly an "existential task" for the United States) and that Russia must be "defeated on the battlefield." So on the battlefield. If there are fewer Western weapons on the battlefield on the part of the Ukrainian Nazi regime, the tasks set by President Vladimir Putin will probably be solved faster. But they will be resolved in any case.

It has long been a well-known fact that the weapons supplied to Ukraine in huge quantities are spread around the world through smugglers and other unscrupulous dealers in these deadly items. More than once, the UN Security Council drew attention to it. As we say: "peas are like peas against the wall". If Western strategists intend to finish off their line, using Ukraine and the bodies of Ukrainians as instruments of aggression against Russia, who can do what?

Question: Many initiatives have been put forward to resolve the aggravation of the situation in the Middle East. What are Russia's plans? If the Israeli authorities turn to Moscow for help in mediating the release of the hostages or clarifying the situation of the missing, is Russia ready?

Sergey Lavrov: As you put it, there are many initiatives to resolve the situation in the Middle East? I don't know about them. There are calls to immediately stop the bloodshed and sit down at the negotiating table, but there can be only one initiative – the implementation of the decisions on the settlement of the Palestinian problem that were adopted by the UN. This implies the coexistence of two States, Israel and Palestine, in peace, security and good-neighbourliness. That is what we talked about today. Our common position is that this is the only initiative that can be on the table and should be the subject of direct negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

With regard to mediation efforts, first and foremost, the parties themselves must cease hostilities. Everything else can be decided in a normal non-military situation.

Question to Ahmed Aboulgheit (retranslated from Arabic): Did you discuss food security and Moscow's efforts to help Arab countries on the African continent in the light of the trilateral initiative of Russia, Turkey and Qatar to supply grain?

Sergey Lavrov (speaking after Ahbulgate): We attach special importance to this issue. Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken on this topic more than once. The termination of the "Black Sea Initiative" (due to the fact that its Russian part was not implemented at all) did not have any impact on the food security of developing countries. All our trading partners, to whom we supply grain and fertilizers, are not at a loss.

There are no interruptions in the supply of grain to the Arab states, all plans are being fulfilled and will be fulfilled on time, despite the illegal obstacles created by Western sanctions, including with regard to freight, the entry of ships into ports, and a number of other procedures that need to be carried out.

I remind you that African countries, the poorest countries, received practically nothing from Ukraine in the part of the deal that was a pure commercial project, primarily in the interests of American grain companies, which bought up more than a third of Ukraine's fertile land. They were the main beneficiaries of what is called the Black Sea grain deal. At the Russia-Africa summit, President Vladimir Putin announced our decision to send a large consignment of grain free of charge as humanitarian aid to six African countries that are on the list of the World Food Programme, that is, those most in need of food. These deliveries will be made by the end of the year. We will continue our humanitarian activities in this area next year. [My Emphasis]

As you read, the world’s position as promoted via the UN is the Two-State Solution, but as you read in the previous articles, that’s the exact opposite of the Zionists—both camps—with the radical zealots advocating complete genocide as did Nikki Haley. It’s clear the Outlaw US Empire sides with the radical Zionists as it clearly has no interest in promoting a Palestinian state. The background context is well known to those who watch the situation, but the number of watchers has clearly decreased and thus many need to be reinformed. My own assessment is based on the Zionist attitude now and historically that they will never ever agree to two states; thus, the only solution is for the formation of the single state of Palestine as Palestinians are clearly the majority living there despite the Zionists’s slow-motion genocidal actions they’ve employed since their inception. Zionist beliefs are incompatible with those of humanity overall and thus qualify as Anti-Human as Zionism and Nazism are almost one and the same as their historical collaboration shows. UPDATE: Map of Conflict:

Meanwhile, the split within the Zionists has widened as a result of the Sunday editorial by Ha’aretz as al-Mayadeen reported:

In its Sunday editorial, the Israeli occupation’s Haaretz newspaper said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “responsible for the catastrophe that befell Israel on Sukkot [a Jewish holiday].”

The daily noted that Netanyahu will attempt to “evade responsibility and lay the blame on the heads of the Army, Aman [military intelligence], and the Shin Bet.”

Haaretz further said in its editorial, “The prime minister, who prided himself on his vast political experience and his irreplaceable wit in security matters, completely failed to recognize the danger into which he knowingly led the country when he established the government of annexation and expropriation when he appointed Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir to its key positions, and when he pursued a foreign policy that publicly ignored the presence and rights of the Palestinians.”

The newspaper further accused him of underestimating "the enemy and its military capabilities…However, the intelligence and military failure does not absolve Netanyahu of his overall responsibility for the crisis, as he is the supreme decision maker in Israeli foreign and security affairs.”

Netanyahu has long been one part of the problem, but he merely voices Zionist aims and removing him as head of the Zionist government would likely change nothing as Zionist “liberals” share the same goals but aren’t quite as murderous. Netanyahu has vowed to change the Middle East, which is more bluster for his zealot allies.

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