Putin blames US for Middle East violence

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The ongoing Middle East crisis precipitated by the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s surprise incursion into southern Israel last week demonstrates Washington’s failure to manage issues, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I believe many would agree with me that it is a glaring example of US Middle East policy failures.” They attempted to monopolise the peace settlement but, unfortunately, paid little attention to seeking compromises acceptable to both parties,” Russian President Vladimir Putin noted on Tuesday.

Instead, he argued, Washington applied pressure to both parties in an attempt to push its own answers on them. The United States “never took into account the core interests of the Palestinian people,” according to Putin. Those are the primary interests.

Putin made the remarks during a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani in Moscow. The Russian president said he believed the two nations were united in prioritizing the minimization of harm done to civilians by both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Other senior Russian officials, like Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, have previously blamed the increased hostilities on the United States. On Monday, Russia’s top diplomat urged that the so-called quartet of Middle East mediators — the US, Russia, the EU, and the UN – take the lead in peace talks. He claimed that the US had shelved this mechanism in order to “monopolise” the process for its own profit.

On Saturday, Hamas, which is based in Gaza, launched a surprise attack on Israeli territory, overwhelming the country’s air defences with enormous missile barrages and carrying out a lightning raid. Its fighters slaughtered people and kidnapped captives in order to trade them for Israeli detainees.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign against Gaza, claiming victory.