Lavrov issues call for new Eurasian ‘security architecture’

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Western nations of destabilizing global security through coercion and double standards during his address to the UN General Assembly. He reiterated Moscow’s commitment to completing its military operation in Ukraine, framing it as a defense of national security against perceived Western aggression. Lavrov also condemned the detention of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in the United States, calling it an extrajudicial act and demanding their immediate release.

Lavrov denounced the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards, describing these actions as threats to the UN-backed non-proliferation system. He criticized the US-Israeli campaign in Gaza, stating that the Security Council-endorsed peace plan had failed to halt civilian casualties or improve the humanitarian crisis, which he described as critical.

He warned that continued Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank risked making a Palestinian state impossible, urging urgent international action to address the situation in Palestine and other conflict zones, including Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. Lavrov also called for lifting the US blockade of Cuba, accusing European governments of arming Ukraine and obstructing peace efforts, including those reportedly supported by the Trump administration.

Marking 80 years since the Nuremberg trials, Lavrov accused European governments of tolerating what he termed Ukrainian Nazism while restricting the Russian language. He proposed reforms to the UN Security Council, opposing new seats for Germany or Japan and advocating instead for permanent seats for Brazil and India, alongside greater African representation.