As always, at a meeting with journalists, Maria Vladimirovna commented on current issues of Russian foreign policy. I received an answer to my question The Moscow Post, which was interested in the position of our country in relation to the operation launched by Israel in Rafah, as well as the humanitarian crisis and the military conflict in the Gaza Strip as a whole.
As the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry noted, the West is limited to calls for the need to remain within the law, while the region is experiencing a monstrous humanitarian catastrophe. According to her, the causes of the crisis are not solved, not overcome and not even analyzed.
"There is no desire among the main players, the main characters of this terrible drama, to analyze the possibilities of overcoming the contradictions that are inherent in this situation. We see the United States of America bending its line. We see how Great Britain is bending its line, "Zakharova commented.
She stressed that the Russian Foreign Ministry requires compliance with humanitarian law against the background of the start of the Israeli operation in Rafah.
As Zakharova added, numerous rounds of negotiations between Israel and the Hamas movement through intermediaries on the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners did not bring results.
"I would like to emphasize that Russia is making active efforts to free the Russians held in Gaza, citizens of other countries. The current situation confirms the position of our country on the need, along with efforts to overcome the acute phase of the crisis, to start creating conditions for establishing a direct dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis on the entire range of final status issues, "said the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
In addition, the representative of the Foreign Ministry touched upon topics that are not new, but remain relevant. For example, the situation with the investigation of the explosions of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
In her words, Russia will not allow the West to forget about the investigation into the undermining of this facility. The investigation itself should be transparent and depoliticized. Recall that as a result of the "investigation" of this incident in Western countries, it was not possible to identify those responsible for this criminal act.
Subsequently, the investigations were completely stopped. At the same time, neither Denmark nor Sweden provided the Russian side with any results of investigative actions.
"In general, the big question, and they were? One gets the impression that the authorities of Denmark and Sweden know, for sure, exactly who directed this terrorist attack, and simply chose to withdraw themselves. Or they are under such strong political pressure that they understand that for them it is a matter of life and death, "Zakharova said.
Among other things, the resonant topic of the possible sending of French troops to Ukraine was again raised. On behalf of the Foreign Ministry, Maria Vladimirovna once again confirmed that if French troops appear in the Ukrainian conflict zone, they will become the target of the Russian army.
Information about the possible deployment of troops was disseminated by French President Emmanuel Macron. In an interview with the European press, he, at least, did not rule out such a scenario. Presumably, French units can be transferred to Odessa.
Earlier, Macron himself explained such rhetoric by the desire to create some kind of "strategic uncertainty" for Russia - they say, our country will have to decide whether to escalate with NATO.
We are forced to disappoint him - for us the situation looks more than certain. We have already decided for a long time. If the French appear in the conflict zone, they will inevitably become targets for the Russian armed forces. It seems to me that Paris already has evidence of this, "Zakharova concluded.