Russia Foreign Minister says scale of tragedy in Gaza 'deliberately' downplayed

The scale of tragedy in Gaza has been “deliberately downplayed”, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The scale of the tragedy in Gaza has been deliberately belittled where, in less than five months, more civilians, including children and women, were killed than on both sides in Donbas in the 10 years since the unconstitutional coup in Kyiv,” Lavrov said, speaking at a G20 ministerial meeting in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro.

The Minister noted that G20 will hardly find solutions to the accumulated challenges and threats to global security.

Lavrov said the former Soviet Union and the United States have formed the basis for controlling military risks and ensuring strategic security, especially in Europe, “but this has been destroyed”.

“With the West’s provocation, the foundations of international communication are undermined and the principles of the United Nations Charter and global legal rules are violated, including sovereign equality between States, non-interference in their internal affairs and the right of peoples to self-determination,” he added.

He invited the world’s leading economies to clearly declare their refusal to use economics as a weapon and war as an investment, to demonstrate their commitment to open and equitable trade and economic cooperation.

“It is important to confirm that global banks and funds should not finance militaristic goals and aggressive regimes, but needy countries in the interests of sustainable development.”

“This would be the contribution of the G20, in its area of responsibility, to creating material conditions for finding ways to resolve conflicts through inclusive diplomacy, while respecting the central role of the UN Security Council, and not through closed formats and formulas based on ultimatums,” he said.

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