Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions at a joint news conference with Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Moscow, October 9, 2023

Ladies and gentlemen,

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit and I have just held talks.

We discussed issues related to strengthening practical interaction between the Arab League and the Russian Federation. September 2023 marked the 20th anniversary of signing the memorandum of understanding between the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Arab League’s General Secretariat.  Today, we have reaffirmed that this document remains a solid foundation for our joint work, and that it lays out key markers to guide further progress in our productive relations.

The Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum is an important mechanism of collaboration. In April 2019, Moscow hosted its last meeting. The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted plans for holding subsequent meetings. Today, we expressed our joint intention to hold a regular meeting in this format in December 2023 in Marrakesh. We agreed that developments in the Middle East, North Africa and the world are increasing the urgency of the task of intensifying our foreign policy coordination, especially in the context of the latest developments in Gaza and all other Palestinian territories. We expounded on our position that it is unacceptable to commit any violence, inflict damage, kill peaceful civilians (on either side) or take women and children hostage. 

The League of Arab States and the Russian Federation have simultaneously, almost in unison, urged the parties to the conflict to immediately cease the hostilities and violence, and start moving towards negotiations. We are deeply concerned about the death of hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians. Thousands have been wounded. The Gaza Strip has been designated as a target of retaliatory operations by Israel. Serious discontent is also brewing on the West Bank of the Jordan River. The potential for conflict is building up on the Lebanese-Israeli border. We condemn violence and its manifestation in any form. We are calling on everyone to speak out against any hostilities. Clearly, we have heard the relevant statements from our Western colleagues condemning the attack on Israel. We also expect them to call for an end to the hostilities, however, their position gives rise to some serious questions. They do say that [the hostilities] must be stopped without delay, but "Israel must win and stamp out terrorists". This has already happened many times in the history of this most protracted unresolved conflict on earth. Such flareups have happened many times but after the situation is normalised, the necessary effort has never been made to remove the main cause of instability in the Middle East. I am referring to the need to resolve the Palestinian problem based on the two-state solution, in keeping with the UN Security Council resolutions, the agreements reached by the two parties in Oslo and Madrid, and the Arab Peace Initiative. These agreements and resolutions provide for the creation of the State of Palestine, which will live side by side with Israel in peace, security and cooperation.  

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reaffirmed many times that we are interested in ensuring security for Palestine and Israel. A lot of our compatriots live in Israel. We are concerned about their fate in the current situation and are doing our best to find out if there are people among them who need assistance. We will be ready to evacuate those who wish to leave for Russia. I want to emphasise again that we cannot agree with those who say that security needs to be ensured only by countering extremism and terrorism. This flies in the face of the UN resolution on creating the State of Palestine.

I cannot help mentioning the destructive policy of the United States that erodes the collective efforts by the Quartet of international mediators that includes the UN, Russia, the United States and the EU. It is precisely this mechanism that is recognised as crucial in the UN Security Council resolutions.  To use this channel and cooperate with the League of Arab States, the Americans are trying to monopolise the mediation efforts and divert the dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis away from the political settlement and the creation of the State of Palestine. They are trying to replace efforts to implement the UN Security Council resolutions with talk about alleviating the socioeconomic problems in Palestine and establishing contacts between the Palestinians and the Israelis to ensure day-to-day security on the ground. However, the Americans prefer not to talk about the creation of the State of Palestine or the need to carry out the UN resolutions.

We proceed from the premise that it is necessary to support the Arab League in a pro-active manner. In recent times, this organisation has declared quite a few initiatives directed at bringing Syria back into the Arab family. Processes of normalisation are under way between Saudi Arabia and Iran. There is some headway in Syria-Türkiye relations. If all of this comes to fruition, the situation in the region will be stabilised. The Palestinian problem can no longer be postponed and the UN resolutions must be implemented. We think that by encouraging these processes and promoting the practical steps to create a Palestinian state, the Arab League can play the determining role in bringing about a comprehensive improvement in the regional situation. In keeping with the UN decision, Palestine and Israel will live side by side and reciprocally ensure security and normal good-neighbourliness. This is the most reliable way to solve the problems that periodically flare up in this part of the world.

We have also discussed how to deal with the problems of Syria and Libya, whose statehood was destroyed by the NATO aggression in 2011. Huge efforts are being made to piece these statehoods together, but so far they have been unsuccessful.  We talked about the need to help stop the bloodshed in Sudan.  The Arab League has ideas in this regard as well, which we are prepared to support.

In response to our friends’ request, we told them about the current state of affairs. As far as Ukraine is concerned, we have clarified our attitude to various calls for starting talks. President of Russia Vladimir Putin has repeatedly explained our position in absolutely clear terms. For example, he did this at the recent Valdai forum. We have never refused to talk, if talks are proposed on a serious basis rather than in the form of ultimatums. What we see is Ukraine’s flat refusal to engage in any dialogue unless it is based on the “Zelensky formula,” which is a propaganda-driven unattainable project.  I am grateful to my friend and colleague and give the floor to him.  

Question: Over the past eighteen months, Russia has regularly railed against US and NATO arms supplies to Ukraine. These weapons later ended up on the black market. The other day, some members of the US Congress woke up to the fact that weapons supplied to Zelensky by the West and the Biden administration have found their way to the Middle East and are being used to kill peaceful civilians. Do you think the White House has drawn any lessons?

Sergey Lavrov: I find it hard to speculate about what the White House can or cannot do. Over the last one and a half to two years, we have seen numerous White House actions and statements that do not fit in with the foreign policy logic promoted by President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the Foreign Ministry of Russia. I am referring to the search for mutually acceptable solutions to any international problem. The White House has declared the task of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia (which is allegedly an “existential challenge” to the United States) and insists that Russia should be “defeated on the battlefield.” So let the battlefield judge us. If there are fewer Western weapons used on the battlefield by the Ukrainian Nazi regime, the goals set by President Vladimir Putin will possibly be attained more quickly. But attained they will be, in any case.

The fact that the weapons supplied en masse to Ukraine are spreading across the world through the agency of smugglers and other corrupt traders in these deadly tools has been publicly known for quite a long time. We have repeatedly turned the spotlight on it at the UN Security Council. But, as the Russians say, it was like talking to a brick wall. What can anyone do, if the Western strategists intend to go the whole hog and use Ukraine and the dead bodies of Ukrainians as tools of aggression against Russia?

Question: Today, there are many initiatives on how to deal with the surge of tensions in the Middle East. What are Russia’s plans? Is Russia ready to cooperate, if the Israeli authorities ask Moscow for help in mediating the liberation of hostages or identifying the whereabouts of missing persons?

Sergey Lavrov: Did you say that there were many initiatives on how to deal with the surge of tensions in the Middle East?  I know nothing about them. There are appeals for an immediate end to the bloodshed and the commencement of talks, but there can be only one initiative on implementing the UN resolutions concerning the solution to the Palestinian problem. This implies coexistence of two states, Israel and Palestine, living in peace, security and good-neighbourliness. This is what we talked about earlier today. Our shared position is that this is the only initiative that can be on the table and should be the subject of direct talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis.    

As for the mediating efforts, the parties themselves should primarily stop the hostilities, while the rest can be addressed in a normal non-military situation.   

Question to Ahmed Aboul Gheit (retranslated from the Arabic): Did you discuss food security and Moscow’s efforts to help Arab countries in Africa in the light of the trilateral grain initiative put forward by Russia, Türkiye and Qatar?

Sergey Lavrov (speaking after Ahmed Aboul Gheit): We are focusing on this issue. President of Russia Vladimir Putin has repeatedly commented on this matter. The termination of the Black Sea Initiative (because the Russian aspect of the package was not implemented at all) has had no impact on food security in developing countries. All our trade partners, to whom we supply grain and fertiliser, are none the worse for it.

There are no interruptions in grain supplies to Arab countries. All plans are being implemented and will be accomplished on time, despite the illegal obstacles created by the West’s sanctions, including in terms of freight, port calls, and a number of other procedures that need to be performed.

Let me remind you that African countries, the poorest countries have received next to nothing from Ukraine under that part of the deal that was a purely commercial project carried out primarily in the interests of the US grain companies, which have bought up over one-third of Ukraine’s fertile arable lands. They are the main beneficiaries of what is known as the Black Sea Grain Deal. In his remarks at the Russia-Africa Summit, President of Russia Vladimir Putin announced our decision to send a large batch of grain free of charge as our humanitarian aid to six African countries on the list of the World Food Programme, that is, those most in need of food. These supplies will reach their destination before the end of this year. We will continue our humanitarian activities in this regard next year.