Russia supports independent Palestine’s accession to the UN

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking at a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, touched on the Palestinian issue and said that Russia supports Palestine’s accession to the UN, as nearly 150 states have already recognized its independence.

“In 1949, we supported Israel’s application for membership in the UN, subject to the implementation of UN General Assembly resolutions 181 and 194 regarding the right of Palestinian refugees to repatriate. This was made clear when we voted in favor of Israel’s accession to the UN. Likewise, today we support the accession of Palestine, whose sovereignty has been recognized by almost 150 countries, to the world organization,” the head of Russian diplomacy said.

According to the TASS news agency, Lavrov stressed that Russia defends a position based on international law, within the framework of various international formats for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as the Middle East conflict in general.

“We proceed from the imperative of implementing the decisions of the UN, including the aforementioned resolutions of the General Assembly and the key resolutions of the Security Council – number 242 and 338 – adopted after the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War, as well as resolutions number 478 and 497 concerning the status of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights,” he added.