MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has criticized European leaders who announced their intention to recognize Palestine, saying they hope that "there will be nothing left to recognize."
"We all repeat like a mantra: ‘The long-term solution to the crisis lies in the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.’ Look at the map. The facts on the ground there make the creation of a state impossible," the top diplomat stated during a meeting with students and faculty at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).
In his view, "it is not by chance that [French President Emmanuel] Macron, [UK Prime Minister Keir] Starmer, and some other European leaders a couple of months ago, when there was another bloody outbreak of violence, condemned it and said that we would definitely recognize the Palestinian state when we arrived at the UN General Assembly." "My question is: ‘Why don't you recognize it right away if you've decided to do so?’ I have only one answer: they are counting on the fact that by the time they threaten to recognize the Palestinian state, there will be nothing left to recognize, that's all," Lavrov stressed. He added: "So there is clear hypocrisy here."
