Polyansky called the situation in the Middle East the central theme of the UN General Assembly

Crises in the Middle East, and especially the situation in the Gaza Strip, will be in the center of attention during the general debate at the UN General Assembly, despite attempts by a number of countries to shift attention to Ukraine. Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN , told RIA Novosti in an interview on September 24.

"I am absolutely sure that, of course, the issues of the Middle East and Gaza will be at the center of attention of the majority of speeches during the general debate," Polyansky said.

At the same time, he admitted attempts to shift attention to Ukraine.

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Earlier, on September 22, the UN General Assembly (GA) adopted the "Pact of the Future". Russia, Belarus, Belarus, Nicaragua, North Korea, Syria, Sudan and Iran opposed the adoption of the document. Another 15 countries abstained from voting, 143 supported it. Thus, Russia distanced itself from the consensus on the document because of the non-adoption of the amendment on non-interference in the internal affairs of other states. Vershinin, who represented Russia at the summit, said that the text of the document was written under the dictation of Western countries. The Russian Federation, in view of the relevant claims to the text of the pact, proposed to continue negotiations and postpone its adoption.

Later, the first Polyansky called the pact adopted at the "Summit of the Future" unbalanced. According to him, when adopting the document, the organization compromised its own principles in favor of some delegations, while the rest lacked the courage to "protest and defend their rights".

For his part, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said that the UN, as the Russian side believes, needs to fulfill a central role in a multipolar world that will coordinate and bring together the positions of various players.

The Israel Defense Forces launched massive strikes on Shiite Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. One of them was struck in Beirut. The Israeli General Staff indicated that the country is conducting a pre-emptive operation to destroy the infrastructure of the Shiite organization. Earlier it was reported that as a result of Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed at least 492 people.

Before that, on September 17 and 18, two waves of explosions of pagers and other communication devices of Hezbollah members took place in Lebanon. It was reported that at least 37 people were killed then, about 3 thousand people were injured. The country's authorities and representatives of Hezbollah blamed Israel for the incident.

The situation in the Middle East escalated in the morning of October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian radical movement Hamas subjected the territory of Israel to massive rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, invaded the border areas in the south of the country and seized hostages. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes.