Speaking on the occasion of Russian Energy Week, President Vladimir Putin recollected that initially, in 1948, the UN had decided to create a binational state in Palestine. It is this project, and not the unilateral Israeli declaration of independence, which was ratified by the United Nations. For this reason, “it is impossible to resolve the problem without the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

President Putin expressed surprise at the US decision to deploy to the Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Gaza, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group, guided missile cruiser USS Normandy, as well as destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney and USS Roosevelt. “I don’t understand why the United States is sending a naval force there? To do what? ".

Finally, he said he was unpleasantly surprised by the search for a scapegoat. “Iran is accused of the most serious things, as always, without proof,” he underscored.

This position does not mark a shift in the doctrine of the Russian Federation; however until now, Moscow had refrained from making it explicit.