Russia\u2019s leader says unnamed forces are seeking to provoke an escalation, drawing as many other countries as possible
\nMoscow
\nRussia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin has warned that Israel\u2019s war in Gaza could spread well beyond the Middle East, saying it was wrong that innocent women, children and old people in the Palestinian enclave are being punished for other people\u2019s crimes.
\n\u201cOur task today, our main task, is to stop the bloodshed and violence,\u201d Putin said at a Kremlin meeting with Russian religious leaders of different faiths on Wednesday, according to a Kremlin transcript.
\nThe Russian president, who has been leading an all-out war in neighbouring Ukraine since February last year, said he told other world leaders in phone calls that if Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza did not stop, there was a risk of a much wider conflagration. \u201cFurther escalation of the crisis is fraught with grave and extremely dangerous and destructive consequences. And not only for the Middle East region. It could spill over far beyond the borders of the Middle East,\u201d he added.
\nIn remarks that criticised the West, he said certain unnamed forces were seeking to provoke further escalation and to draw as many other countries and peoples into the conflict as possible.
\nThe aim, he said, was to \u201claunch a real wave of chaos and mutual hatred not only in the Middle East but also far beyond its borders. For this purpose, among other things, they are trying to play on the national and religious feelings of millions of people.\u201d
\nCeasefire
\nOn Thursday, the Kremlin said efforts to agree on a \u201cbalanced\u201d United Nations Security Council resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict should continue. This a day after Russia and China vetoed a United States-drafted resolution that called for a \u201chumanitarian pause\u201d to allow aid access, the protection of civilians and a stop to arming Hamas, the group that rules Gaza, and other armed groups in the enclave.
\nDiplomats have noted that a humanitarian pause is not the same as a ceasefire, which has been backed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
\nA pause might last only a matter of hours.
\nRussia made a rival UN proposal that advocated a wider ceasefire \u2013 an option it says is \u201cmuch more balanced\u201d \u2013 but the proposal failed to win the minimum number of votes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russia\u2019s leader says unnamed forces are seeking to provoke an escalation, drawing as many other countries as possible Moscow Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin has warned that Israel\u2019s war in Gaza could spread well beyond the Middle East, saying it was wrong that innocent women, children and old people in the Palestinian enclave are being punished […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-364253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n