Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his counterparts from Iran, Turkey and Lebanon ahead of the United Nations Security Council meeting on Tuesday due to discuss the Middle East, the Russian foreign ministry says.
The bilateral meetings focused on the Gaza Strip, Syria and “the tense situation” in the Red Sea, the ministry says on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday. The meetings took place in New York on Monday.
The ministry says Lavrov and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian agreed on the need for a swift ceasefire in Gaza and conditions for providing humanitarian assistance to civilians. Iran is a key backer of Hamas, whose devastating October 7 terror onslaught in southern Israel triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
“General concern was expressed about the tense situation in the Red Sea, which has sharply degraded,” it says.
On Monday, the United States and Britain carried out an additional round of strikes against Yemen’s Houthis over their targeting of Red Sea shipping, the Pentagon said. The Houthis are an Iranian-backed rebel group that has ruled large swathes of Yemen since forcing the UN-recognized government from the capital Sanaa in 2014.
Lavrov and Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib talked about the importance of collective efforts of countries in the region toward an immediate ceasefire, the ministry says. The border between Israel and Lebanon has seen deadly skirmishes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah terror group, which is similarly supported by Iran, since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
With his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, Lavrov also discussed energy issues as well as “upcoming bilateral contacts.”
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