UN 20 APR. /Offset. TASS Oleg Zelenin/. Iran’s policy and activities of the Lebanese Shiite group “Hezbollah” in the middle East, not Palestinian-Israeli settlement, should become a priority issue in the regional agenda of the UN Security Council. This was stated on Thursday by the U.S. permanent representative at the world organization, Nikki Haley, speaking at the debate of the Security Council on the middle East.

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“The Israeli-Palestinian issue is important and deserves attention. But this issue is definitely not overlooked here (in the Security Council – approx . interviewer). Incredibly destructive activities of Iran and Hezbollah in the middle East requires much more attention. This should be a priority of the Council Security in the region”, – said the diplomat. “We have to resist the illegal and dangerous behavior of Iran and “Hezbollah”, she said.

Haley urged the Security Council to follow suit and to include Iranian-backed groups Hezbollah and Hamas in the list of terrorist organizations followed the introduction of sanctions against them. “Iran remains in (American) the list of state sponsors of terrorism, and we continue to apply all sanctions related to its support for terrorism and destabilizing activities in the region. The USA will be harder to work with partners and allies to undermine the support that Iran has armed and terrorist groups”, – said the diplomat.

The UN security Council is holding today a quarterly debate on the situation in the middle East. Who organized the meeting, the U.S. proposed to the participants to depart from the usual Palestinian-Israeli subjects and focus on the politics of Iran in the region and the activities of terrorist organizations. While a number of Western countries went on about the American side and gave significant attention to the Iran issue in their speeches, other States, including Russia, disagreed with the motive of the debate.

Not a word about ISIS

During his speech, the acting permanent representative of Russia to the UN, Peter Ilichev thanked US for organising the meeting, but expressed “disagreement with the attempt to adjust it to the domestic context, and only their foreign policy priorities”. He noticed that in the concept note prepared by the United States to “the event, which traditionally sounds like “Situation in the middle East, including the Palestinian question”, the American colleagues have managed to get around this most of the Palestinian question in silence.”
Ilichev also troubled by the fact that the document did not reflect the threats that emanate from the terrorist organizations “Islamic state” and “Dzhebhat EN-Nusra” (both banned in Russia) and other extremists, “from the excesses which continues to suffer the civilian population in Syria, Iraq, Libya”.

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“Organize their attacks spread death far beyond the region. Maybe the authors of the concept note there is no claim to them? But terrorists are considered to be those who are just struggling with them in Syria. The Security Council, the authors suggest to consider who are the regional players who benefit from the chaos in the region. Let us ask ourselves, and we: and should we not look for them outside the region?” – asked the diplomat to the participants of the debate.

According to Ilyichev, the members of the security Council should proceed from the fact that the problem of the Palestinian-Israeli and Arab-Israeli settlement “remains at the heart of the regional agenda and the attention of the world community.” “Without a solution to this age-old conflict impossible long-term and sustainable stabilisation of the entire Middle East,” he said.

At the meeting of the security Council were made by the representatives of Israel and Palestine, which are traditionally exchanged mutual accusations. In turn, special coordinator for the middle East peace process Nikolay Mladenov once again noted the lack of progress in the conflict settlement, noting that it remains unresolved contributes to the growth of the terrorist threat in the region.