By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has rejected the ‘aggressive actions of the US and UK on Yemeni territory.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that US measures of launching missile attacks on Yemeni territory have led to expanding the scope of the conflict.

This came during a joint press conference on Tuesday with Yemeni Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak after both parties met in Moscow, the Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reported.

“The increasing tension in the waters of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden due to the Yemeni Houthis’ attack on commercial ships is the result of the growing tension in the Palestinian-Israeli issue, and the Yemen crisis that has been ongoing for nine years,” said Lavrov.

US and UK resorted to neocolonial methods in handling the Red Sea crisis — Lavrov

Russian FM Lavrov condemns the West's bombing of Yemen and points out the US tendency to escalate any conflict it meddles in pic.twitter.com/DlfypNOWx3

— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) February 13, 2024

“Regardless of the reason, we reject attacks on commercial ships, and we also reject the aggressive actions of the US and UK on Yemeni territory,” he continued.

Lavrov stressed that the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip will create military and political risks in the region.

“Ensuring the security of international ships in the Red Sea must be a priority for all responsible members of the international community, and the problem must be resolved through political and diplomatic means,” he asserted.

The Foreign Minister pointed out that the US Operation Prosperity Guardian “resulted in launching missile attacks on Yemeni territory, which led to negative consequences and expanded the conflict zone.”

Global Trade

He said the actions by the Ansarallah movement in the Red Sea negatively affect global trade, stressing the need to create the necessary conditions for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, opening humanitarian corridors, and resuming the negotiation process between the Palestinians and the Israelis, reports MEMO. 

In January, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said the volume of mercantile traffic passing through the Red Sea had decreased by 42 percent in two months. 

Since November, Ansarallah has targeted ships bound for Israeli ports, as a way of putting pressure on Israel to end its attacks on the Gaza Strip, which have resulted in the deaths of close to 30,000 Palestinians.

Ongoing Aggression

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 29,954 Palestinians have been killed, and 70,325 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7. 

Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. 

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children. 

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire.’ 

(PC, MEMO)