• 2 months ago
At the United Nations General Assembly, Russia addressed the ongoing Gaza crisis, condemning the "stripping of civilians of human dignity." The Russian representative emphasized that the collective punishment of all Palestinians is unacceptable, drawing a stark comparison between civilian casualties in Ukraine over two years and the number of Palestinians killed in the last year. This provocative statement highlights the geopolitical implications of the crisis and Russia's stance on international humanitarian issues.


#GazaCrisis #RussiaUN #HumanRights #CollectivePunishment #Palestinians #UkraineConflict #UNGA #CivilianCasualties #Geopolitics #HumanDignity
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Transcript
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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