Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that any trip by a Russian delegation to countries in the Arab world and the Middle East is consistently preceded by demarches from Western countries. Lavrov made these remarks during a press conference following his visit to Tunisia.
"This current trip extends beyond Tunisia; it commenced yesterday... I won't delve into the specifics of how Western countries accompanied these plans and the visits themselves. I won't go into details at this moment," - stated Lavrov. - "However, we are well aware that every Russian delegation's visit, including those from the Foreign Ministry, to countries in the Arab world, the Middle East, and North Africa is invariably preceded by demarches from Western diplomats who issue warnings, cautions, and perhaps even hint at potential consequences."
Lavrov referred to a prior visit to Cairo, where Western diplomats publicly called for the cancellation of his speech at the Arab League headquarters. He clarified that when it was explained that Russia has its own relations with the Arab League based on existing agreements, Western diplomats began requesting that Arab countries condemn Russian actions in Ukraine after his speech.
"There was also a third request from Western ambassadors – at the very least, don't take pictures with him [Lavrov]. I'm not joking, and I bring this up because the League secretariat itself made this public. They even issued a special document detailing the results of this indecent demarche by Western diplomats," - Lavrov added. - "I refrained from discussing such occurrences during my visit yesterday to Morocco and today to Tunisia, but this pattern persists without a doubt. We have trustworthy information that the West is instructing all its ambassadors to behave in a manner akin to how they conducted themselves on the eve of our visit to the Arab League headquarters last year."
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS