Ambassador Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Russian Orthodox Church Chief discuss Interfaith Cooperation to strengthen bilateral ties

Monitoring Desk: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said in an interview with RT India published on May 13, 2026 that one of the objectives of launching US aggression on Iran was to prevent the normalisation of relations between Iran and the Arab states.

In his interview Lavrov stated that he had no doubt that when plans were being hatched to unleash aggression against Iran as he is convinced that, without creating a Palestinian State, world will preserve a hotbed of extremism for many decades to come – one from which everyone will suffer.

He said:

I have no doubt that when plans to stir up aggression against Iran were being hatched, one of the goals was to prevent the normalisation of relations between Iran and the Arab states. More broadly, I remember how, years ago, King Abdullah II of Jordan held a summit on Sunni-Shia reconciliation. Now, everything is being done to ensure that reconciliation never happens – to paint Iran, one of the major Shia countries, as a true pariah, and to pull its other Gulf neighbours into structures that, first, will not focus on resolving the Palestinian issue, and second, will force them to betray the Palestinian cause as the price for normalising relations with Israel.

I am convinced of this not just because we are formalists who insist on implementing UN resolutions on a Palestinian state for their own sake. I have no doubt that without a Palestinian state, we will perpetuate a hotbed of extremism for decades to come – one that will harm everyone, including Israel and its Arab neighbours. Because Israel, as we know, responds disproportionately to extremism and terrorist attacks. That would be a perpetual motion machine – an irritant keeping the crisis in its hot phase for years. I think many people understand this. Israel, with US support, wants to break the Palestinian settlement and turn it into something else, scattering Palestinians across.