Press TV – Feb 26, 2025
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says US President Donald Trump’s scheme to take over the besieged Gaza Strip would not resolve the long-standing Palestinian issue, but would rather be a “time bomb” in West Asia.
The top Russian diplomat said in a press conference during an official visit to Qatar on Wednesday that attempts to undermine the UN Security Council decisions and replace the creation of a Palestinian state with the relocation of the Palestinians in the region will have negative consequences.
Lavrov was in Doha to meet with Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
“The creation of a Palestinian State is the key issue, and if there are attempts to undermine those Security Council decisions and substitute the establishment of a Palestinian State with the resettlement of Palestinians throughout the region, that will only set off a time bomb,” he said.
Lavrov said there have been similar outcomes “so many times over the long decades of ignoring the demands for a two-state solution.”
He said Russia is also concerned by Israel’s actions that place barriers on the path to a peace deal in the region.
Trump has proposed displacing Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries.
The US special envoy to West Asia, Steve Witkoff, said on Tuesday that a summit will soon be held with real estate developers and planners from the region to discuss the controversial plan for Gaza.
“We’re going to conduct a summit pretty soon with probably the biggest developers in the Middle East region, many of the Arab developers — lots of master planners,” Witkoff said at an event in Washington on Tuesday.
“I think when people see some of the ideas that come from this, they’re going to be amazed.”
The US president unveiled the vicious scheme during a White House news conference in early February with the visiting Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli minister of military affairs Israel Katz has ordered the regime’s military to prepare a plan that would force the “voluntary departure” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Trump’s plan has already sparked international condemnation. It has faced resounding rejection among Palestinians, West Asian leaders, and governments around the world.
Palestinians have denounced the scheme as a “declaration of war.”
Israel ignores international outcry
A year of pronouncements on Gaza failed to stop slaughter
A YEAR of authoritative
pronouncements on Israel’s crimes has
gotten nowhere.
It is a year since the West’s own erstwhile
respected bodies began reaching
determinations regarding Israel’s crimes
in historic Palestine, and issuing orders for
measures to be taken to prevent a genocide
of the Palestinians in Gaza. Yet the killing
continues unabated.
One can only conclude that the West has
effectively destroyed the value of the
institutions it so proudly created, and
thus any claim it once had to representing
a civilisation.
On January 26, 2024, The International
Court of Justice found that a plausible
case could be made that Israel was
committing genocide in Gaza.
On July 19, 2024, The International
Court of Justice declared that Israel’s
occupation of the Gaza strip and
the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem, was unlawful, along with
the associated settlement regime,
annexation and use of natural
resources. It mandated Israel to end its
occupation, dismantle its settlements,
provide full reparations to Palestinian
victims and facilitate the return of
displaced people.
The Court refuted the notion that
Palestinian self-determination must
be achieved solely through bilateral
negotiations with Israel. It reaffirmed
that freedom from foreign military
occupation, racial segregation
and apartheid is absolutely nonnegotiable.
On November 21, 2024, The
International Criminal Court issued
arrest warrants for Israeli Prime
Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and
former Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav
Gallant, for crimes against humanity
and war crimes.
On December 5, 2024, Amnesty
International issued a 296-page report
detailing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
On December 19, 2024, Human Rights
Watch issued a 179-page report
detailing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
In late December, Israel set fire to
north Gaza’s last functioning hospital.
American emergency physician Mimi
Syed, currently on her second medical
mission in Gaza, told Al-Jazeera that
the Israeli military’s order to evacuate
the Kamal Adwan Hospital spells the
‘end of humanity’ in northern Gaza, as
no health facility will now be operating
in the area.
More than 1000 medical staff have
been killed in Gaza, despite working
in clearly marked uniforms under the
protection of international law.
The Israeli military said in a statement:
‘Kamal Adwan Hospital serves as a
Hamas terrorist stronghold in northern
Gaza, from which terrorists have been
operating throughout the war.’
After 15 months of attacks, Israel has
yet to provide any compelling evidence
that Hamas operatives have been
present in this or any other hospital.
On December 24, John J. Mearsheimer,
distinguished scholar and professor
of political science, posted an article
on his substack entitled: The Moral
Bankruptcy of the West. In it, he writes:
‘Many human rights advocates in the
West have stayed silent while Israel
executed its genocide. The mainstream
media has made hardly any effort
to expose and challenge what Israel
is doing to the Palestinians. Indeed
some key outlets have staunchly
supported Israel’s actions. One
wonders what people in the West,
who have either supported Israel’s
genocide or remained silent, tell
themselves to justify their behaviour
and sleep at night. History will not treat
them kindly.
by FRANCESCA ABBOTT
Should the Jews illegally occupying Palestine be treated the same as Zionist communists and Jews treated sixteen million ethnic Germans from 1944 to 1950, in Europe? They were made to leave their homes with nothing but what they could carry, and if they caused any damage to their property they were mercilessly beaten, and then they were marched hundreds of miles to be interned, Palestine then could be repopulated with the people it rightly belongs to.