Russian MFA 🇷🇺

🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’sinterview with Al Arabiya television channel(Moscow, February 17, 2026) Key talking points: #TheArabWorld • We enjoy solid relationships with all Arab countries and their organisations. These include the League of Arab States (LAS), with which we have held about half a dozen ministerial meetings. We also plan to hold the Russia-LAS summit. We also maintain a close relationship with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which has been maintained by annual events at the level of foreign ministers. #SaudiArabia • Saudi Arabia is the leader of the Arab world, a country of two Holiest sites in Islam, and the author of the Arab Peace Initiative to settle the most complicated and enduring crisis, the Palestinian issue. • Our country regards Saudi Arabia as its strategic partner in the region. We believe that this view is shared by our Saudi colleagues. We are very pleased with our cooperation. • We are developing humanitarian, cultural, educational and sports ties. <...> A few days ago, I had a conversation with my friend, Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. One of the issues we discussed concerned the preparation of Intervision International Music Contest, which reflects the striving of Russia and Saudi Arabia to promote traditional values. • We enjoy solid relationships with all Arab countries and their organisations. These include the #LAS, with which we have held about half a dozen ministerial meetings. We also plan to hold the #RussiaLAS summit. We also maintain a close relationship with #GCC. #Iran • Regrettably, Israel and the US went ahead with the strikes [against Iran], creating physical risks and undermining the authority of the #IAEA and the #NPT. The IAEA has exerted unprecedented control, especially in the past years, after the signing of the #JCPOA. Iran was never found violating the Non-Proliferation Treaty or its agreement on guarantees with the IAEA. All risks and political tensions emerged after the US withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018. #Syria • Mutual respect and mutual benefit – these are the principles that have underpinned our relations with Syria from the very beginning, since its establishment. We hold these relations in high regard. • We firmly believe that a multiethnic, multi-confessional state such as Syria must restore its unity, territorial integrity, and sovereignty as swiftly as possible. In this endeavour, we will continue to – and indeed already do – assist Damascus and its new leadership. • As for our military facilities, discussions are ongoing. Let me reiterate: the Syrians are keen for our presence to endure. #Palestine • We should not overlook the fact that the situation in the West Bank is becoming increasingly tense and volatile as a result of Israeli actions, including the recent issuance of directives regulating land acquisition and urban development procedures. Until recently, such matters were coordinated with the Palestinian National Authority. Now, however, unilateral decisions are being taken, and analysis of their likely consequences suggests that little may remain of the territories currently administered by the Palestinian National Authority. Now, however, unilateral decisions are being taken, and analysis of their likely consequences suggests that little may remain of the territories currently administered by the Palestinian National Authority. #UkrainianCrisis • Europe hysterically demands that Russia start talks and that all sides agree that Europe must be part of these talks. <...> Europe has revealed its Nazi essence, which we thought was destroyed with the Hitler’s defeat in WWII. It has turned out to be extremely tenacious. I don’t see what role Europe could play. • We greatly value the stance taken by the Trump administration and personally by the President of the US. We are closely observing Europe’s attempts to dissuade the current Washington administration from its principled stance, as discussed and agreed in Anchorage, Alaska. We remain fully committed to those understandings. Read in full

#Outcomes2025 ✍️Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s answers to media questions received for Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s news conference on the performance of Russian diplomacy in 2025 Read in full Key points #UkraineCrisis#KievRegimeCrimes • [Following the Kiev regime attack on Russia’s President’s state residence in the Novgorod Region] many countries could once again see the terrorist nature of Zelensky’s clique <…> Terrorism in any form is unacceptable and certainly does not help achieve a political and diplomatic solution to the conflict. Kiev is only making matters worse for itself with its recklessness and impeding efforts to find possible compromises. • The deployment of military units, facilities, warehouses and other infrastructure of the Western countries in Ukraine <…> will be considered as foreign intervention that directly threatens Russia’s security. #Multipolarity • The situation surrounding Denmark’s northern autonomous territory vividly demonstrates the bankruptcy of the so-called “rules-based international order” so dear to many in the West. • Cooperation is being actively forged in formats with limited membership. Alongside the CIS, mechanisms such as the #EAEU, #BRICS, #SCO, #ASEAN, #LAS, #GCC, the #AfricanUnion, and #CELAC, among others, maintain momentum. <...> We regard these developments as part of the historically determined process of shaping a multipolar world order, which will lead to the further consolidation of several global and an even greater number of regional centres of power and development. #InternationalSecurity • The international security system is indeed undergoing a period of profound transformation today. This is driven by two primary factors: the objective processes shaping a polycentric world order, and attempts to substitute international law with the law of the mightiest. • Relying on force as the primary instrument in foreign policy and undermining of the existing institutional and legal framework of international relations risks chaos and escalating confrontation, <...> increase of the likelihood of direct clashes between major states, including nuclear powers. Under these conditions, developments become highly unpredictable. • Russia firmly opposes this scenario. We are capable of defending our interests – history provides ample evidence of this. Our country has traditionally played a stabilising and balancing role in global affairs. #RussiaUS • Following Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the Presidents of Russia and the US <...> agreed to maintain a high tempo of work. This was founded upon a mutual understanding of the necessity to rid ourselves as soon as possible of the “toxic legacy” of the Joe Biden administration. <...> Our American counterparts made it clear: great powers, when their national interests diverge <...> must not allow differences to escalate into confrontation. • President Donald Trump is perhaps one of the few Western politicians who not only immediately rejected imposing meaningless and destructive preconditions for substantive dialogue with Moscow on the Ukraine crisis but also publicly addressed its root causes. • It was precisely the elimination of these root causes that was discussed in Anchorage on August 15, 2025. <...> We anticipate that, provided the original Anchorage formula is preserved and Russian interests are handled with due care, we can, sooner or later, come close to a negotiated resolution of the Ukraine issue. #Iran • We strongly condemn subversive external interference in Iran’s domestic political processes. <...> Threats of new military strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran are absolutely unacceptable. • Those who intend to exploit foreign-inspired unrest as a pretext to repeat the aggression against Iran <...> must clearly understand the catastrophic consequences such actions would have for the situation in the Middle East and for international security as a whole.