Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution (New York,

 Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin’s remarks at the High-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution (New York, July 29, 2025)

Read in full (https://t.ly/m0wAy)

The developments in the Middle East, an unprecedented crisis, and a wide-scale escalation of violence have once again demonstrated that genuine peace and security will not come to the region without a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue.

Meetings and conferences can be postponed, but Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank of the Jordan River, and East Jerusalem can no longer wait. The realisation of their legitimate aspirations for their own sovereign state and ensuring their fundamental rights to self-determination and return has been unjustly delayed for prohibitively long 80 years. <...>

Moscow has since advocated for the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with the capital in East Jerusalem, which could peacefully and safely coexist with Israel. Since 1990, the Embassy of the State of Palestine has been operating in Moscow.

Just like dozens of other countries, Russia recognised Palestinian statehood not to draw applause, but in order to create a two-state solution, and effectively helped to safeguard it.

Russia and 146 other countries reaffirmed their position in favour of Palestinian statehood during a vote held in the General Assembly in May 2024 on granting the Palestinian delegation full member status at the UN.

<...>

The statistics of dead and injured Palestinians are shocking: over 60,000 and 42,000, respectively. As Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasised a year ago during quarterly debates at the UN Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, this number is several times higher than in 11 years of conflict in southeastern Ukraine, which, unlike Palestine, Western delegations are sparing no words or emotions to describe.

According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Gaza became a “graveyard for children” back in November 2023, and “starvation is knocking on every door” there today.

<...>

It is necessary to separately praise the courage and resilience of humanitarian personnel who continue to provide assistance to the people in need amid adversity.

Since the time this crisis had broken out, 483 people were killed, including 326 UN staff, many of whom died alongside their families. We express our condolences to the relatives and loved ones, as well as the colleagues of the deceased.

This is the largest loss of staff for the UN since its founding 80 years ago...

There is only one way to get out of this bloody impasse, and it is to immediately cease fire everywhere, to release hostages and forcibly detained persons without any conditions, to ensure safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and to restart the peace process on a universally recognised international legal basis with the central two-state formula, according to which Israel and Palestine should live side by side in peace and safety.

0:00 / 7:12