UPDATE - Russia says any discussions about Gaza’s future without immediate cease-fire are ‘useless’

ADDS FURTHER REMARKS BY RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER; EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that any discussions about the future of the Gaza Strip without an immediate cease-fire are “useless.”

Speaking at a UN Security Council session on the situation in Gaza, Lavrov said the US has blocked all efforts and initiatives to stop the bloodshed in the enclave, noting that Washington is giving Israel “carte blanche” to collectively punish the Palestinians.

Saying assessments of the current situation in Gaza indicate that an estimated 22% of the agricultural land there is unlikely to ever be restored, he defined the situation on the border between Lebanon and Israel as “explosive.”

He said Russia is “alarmed” over statements by the Israeli leadership that call into question the two-state formula for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Lavrov said the current escalation of the conflict in Gaza has "metastasized" throughout the region due to the US and its allies, "whose military presence in the Middle East, as in other parts of the Eurasian continent, creates ever new unacceptable risks for international security."

“Unlike some Western colleagues who profess double standards, we do not divide extremists into good and bad, into friends and foes. We insist on the release of all those detained in Gaza, regardless of their nationality and origin,” he said.

Lavrov said the whole world is waiting for the West to realize that its “persistent disregard” for multilateral diplomacy leads to "tragic results over and over again."

He said the first and main condition for the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the creation of a Palestinian state is the unity of the Palestinian nation, adding that Palestinians must decide for themselves what their future state should look like, as well as who should govern it and how.

“After the acute phase of the current crisis has been relieved, which should be facilitated by the UN Security Council’s solidarity call for a cease-fire, we propose convening consultations at the ministerial level to consolidate the positions of key regional players and, on this basis, develop practical steps to promote the restoration of Palestinian unity,” he said.

Lavrov also called on members of the UN Security Council not to fall for US assurances that Washington has “everything under control” and to not postpone the establishment of a Palestinian state "until better times."

"It is important that the UN Security Council not only reaffirms that there is no alternative to the existing international legal framework on this critical issue but also outlines specific ways and deadlines for its implementation...This is a moral duty of the international community, and we call for it to be fulfilled," he added.

He added that they do not have the right to allow UN decisions on the creation of a Palestinian state to be “buried” like the Minsk agreements of 2015, and that such "criminal acts" cannot be allowed to be repeated against the Palestinian people.

Israel has mounted a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which Tel Aviv said killed 1,200 people.

At least 25,490 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 63,354 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.