Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told the UN General Assembly in New York
that Western efforts to contain Russia have destroyed the European security
architecture and are obstructing a peaceful settlement of the Ukraine conflict,
undermining prospects for negotiations. He warned Western hopes for a strategic
defeat of Russia risked leading the conflict’s instigators into a strategic dead
end. Lavrov urged the UN to act to reverse the situation in the Middle East and
said restoring trust between Arab states and Iran is a prerequisite for
stabilizing the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. He described the attack
that killed Iran’s former supreme leader Khamenei and other Iranian
military-political leaders as an unacceptable act of force, and also called for
the immediate release of Venezuelan president Maduro and his wife, the lifting
of Cuba’s naval blockade, and economic measures to improve Cuba’s humanitarian
conditions.
