Putin warns of a “chain reaction” that puts the Middle East “on the brink of a full-scale war”

The Russian president emphasizes that lasting peace requires “correcting the historical injustice with the Palestinian people”

The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, warned this Thursday that the Middle East has suffered “a chain reaction” over the last year that has put the region “on the verge of a large-scale war”, while arguing that lasting peace in the area requires “correcting the historical injustice with the Palestinian people” through the materialization of the State of Palestine.

“The fighting in Gaza that started a year ago has now spread to Lebanon and other countries in the region have been affected,” he said during the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan. “The level of confrontation between Israel and Iran has increased drastically. All of this seems like a chain reaction that puts the entire Middle East on the brink of a full-scale war,” he maintained.

Thus, he stated that “correcting the historical injustice towards the Palestinian people can guarantee peace in the Middle East” and explained that, as long as there is no solution on this issue, “the vicious circle of violence cannot be broken.” “People will continue to live in an atmosphere of permanent crisis, with inevitable relapses into large-scale violence,” he noted.

For this reason, Putin has emphasized that “a basic requirement for restoring peace and stability in the Palestinian territories is the two-state solution, approved by resolutions of the Security Council and the UN General Assembly”, while at the same time has insisted that Moscow seeks to “make significant contributions to the stabilization” of the situation in the region.

The conflict broke out after the attacks carried out by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and other Palestinian groups on October 7, 2023, which left about 1,200 dead and nearly 250 kidnapped, according to Israeli authorities. In response, Israel unleashed an offensive against Gaza that leaves more than 42,800 dead, to which are added nearly 750 deaths at the hands of Israeli security forces and in attacks carried out by settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Just one day after the Hamas attacks, the Lebanese Shiite militia party Hezbollah began launching projectiles against Israel, unleashing clashes on the border that continue and have led to the beginning on October 1 of a new Israeli invasion of Lebanon, amid fears about the outbreak of open war between Israel and Iran.