Lavrov names the purpose of attempts to remove Russia from the dialog on Syria

The West is seeking to remove Moscow, Beijing and Tehran from the Syrian settlement in order to relegate them to secondary positions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this on February 4 at the XIV Middle East Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club.

"Attempts to remove Russia, China and Iran from the process of external support for the Syrian settlement are hardly dictated by good intentions, but reveal the West's plans to push its competitors to secondary positions," he said.

At the same time, Lavrov said, the active assistance of external countries is necessary to resolve the situation in the Arab republic. The internal dialog in Syria, in turn, has not worked out well so far, the minister said.

In addition, Lavrov drew attention to Israel's policy in the region. According to him, Tel Aviv not only intends to keep its territorial acquisitions in Lebanon and Syria, but also plans to take control of the Palestinian territories on the northwest bank of the Jordan River. Moscow is already receiving signals of problems with the second phase of the peace agreement with Hamas.

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Earlier, on December 26, Lavrov said that Russia is interested in dialog with the new Syrian authorities. Moscow plans to discuss not only security issues, but also the regional agenda. He confirmed that Russia is ready to support Syria in consolidating processes and help organize elections in which all political groups should participate.

The situation in Syria escalated as a result of a major attack by armed formations in Aleppo and Idlib, which began on November 28 and led to the Syrian army's retaliation against the militants.

On January 29, the head of the new administration of the interim Syrian government, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was declared president of the country for a transitional period. In addition, the new Syrian authorities announced the termination of the former constitution and the dissolution of the country's parliament.

The escalation of hostilities between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah followed the events of September 17 and 18, 2024, when thousands of people in Lebanon, including members of the movement, were injured when pagers and other communication devices were detonated. Thereafter, Israel continued to eliminate the leadership of the Shiite movement and to strike Lebanese territory.

At the end of November, an indefinite ceasefire agreement between the States came into effect. Starting November 27, Israel was to gradually withdraw its troops from the neighboring country within 60 days. However, at the end of December 2024, the UN peacekeeping mission told Izvestia that Israel had withdrawn its troops from only one town in southern Lebanon during the ceasefire.

The ceasefire regime in the Gaza Strip began to take effect on the morning of January 19. At the same time, the Palestinian movement Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages - Romy Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher - to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The next day, Israel released the first 90 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal. The hostage exchange continues.