Settlement in Middle East needed to battle extremism - Lavrov

THE UNITED NATIONS, September 30. /TASS/. Progress in settlement of the Palestine-Israeli conflict would help to lower extremist sentiments in the Arab countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday at the UN Security Council Chamber titled ‘Maintenance of international peace and security. Settlement of conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa and countering the terrorist threat in the region’. "The struggle against terrorist threat should go hand in hand with intensified efforts aimed at resolving conflicts in the region, namely in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen or wherever," Lavrov said. "However, it includes many-year-long stagnation in the Palestine-Israeli conflict which powerfully fuels radical sentiments in the ‘Arab street’." Along with this, the Russian foreign minister pointed out that "the [international] Quartet of [Mid-East peace] mediators alongside Arab nations and supported by UN other members should recognise their responsibility for resumption of direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine on the basis of two states’ concept." "Moving ahead on this track may become a significant contribution to regional stability and security for all ethnic groups living there," Lavrov said. Read more