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Joel Gehrke, Foreign Affairs Reporter


NextImg:Israel war: Putin elbows his way back to diplomatic high table over 'regional war' threat

Israel is conducting “indiscriminate” attacks in Gaza that could lead to a sprawling war, according to Russian officials who aired the accusation as Russia launched a diplomatic intervention to halt Israeli attacks on Hamas.

“In our assessment, the situation in the Middle East conflict zone is tending to get worse. The operations undertaken by the Israeli military are indiscriminate,” Russian Foreign Ministry Deputy Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Monday at the Kremlin. “Diplomatic efforts on various fronts are intensifying. In principle, the risk of this conflict spiraling out of control is substantial.”

ISRAEL WAR: NEARLY 200 PEOPLE HELD HOSTAGE BY TERRORIST GROUPS IN GAZA

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Ryabkov and other members of his national security apparatus in between calls between the Kremlin chief and his closest allies in the region, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. Those conversations kicked off a series of calls with the rest of “the key players in the conflict” — including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas.

“The parties expressed deep concern about the massive escalation of hostilities that have led to a catastrophic increase in civilian casualties and a deepening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip,” the Kremlin said in a summary readout that covered all of his conversations except the one with Netanyahu. “The Russian President listened to the views and assessments provided by his counterparts. ... Serious concerns were voiced about the possibility of the conflict evolving into a regional war.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, holds a meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo State residence outside Moscow, Russia, Monday, Oct. 16, 2023, to discuss the progress of a special military operation, as well as the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yury Ushakov, characterized those conversations as a “power surge” of diplomacy. Russia, having acquired a pariah status in transatlantic diplomatic circles due to the war in Ukraine, is making an apparent effort to lay the groundwork for involvement in any major diplomatic process in connection to the new war between Israel and Hamas.

“Whenever the moment comes that there will be an actual discussion on on the ceasefire on a more permanent kind of solution, they want to be behind the table,” former Estonian diplomat Peter Raudsik, who spent three years as the Baltic State’s Middle East expert at the United Nations Security Council, told the Washington Examiner. “And now, they’re taking more actively this role of making sure that ... they will be invited, that they will be present.”

The Kremlin positioned Putin as a patron of a bloc composed of Raisi, Assad, El-Sisi, and Abbas.

“The parties expressed deep concern about the massive escalation of hostilities that have led to a catastrophic increase in civilian casualties and a deepening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip,” the statement said. “They unanimously agreed on the need to immediately cease fire and to establish a humanitarian truce in order to provide urgent help to those in need.”

Iran claimed, through a media outlet perceived as linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, that “Putin said Russia’s analysis of the root causes of the crisis in Gaza is analogous to Iran’s,” as Raisi warned of the potential for uncontrolled escalation.

“Considering what is happening in Gaza, there’s a possibility that the war and clashes might spread to other fronts,” Iran’s Raisi told Putin, per Tasnim News Agency. “In that case, it will be more difficult to control the situation.”

Putin was somewhat more diplomatic in his conversation with Netanyahu, as described by the Kremlin.

“The President of Russia expressed his sincere condolences to the families and friends of the Israeli victims and stressed his total rejection and condemnation of any actions that result in civilian casualties, including among women and children,” he said. "Vladimir Putin laid out the steps being taken by Russia to help normalise the situation, to prevent the further escalation of violence and to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.”

Russian officials have reinforced the diplomatic signals sent by Iran, the primary patron of the terrorist organizations that ignited the conflict with their rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7.

“It's really a political exercise of showing or expressing one way or another the point that they have leverage over parties to this conflict,” Raudsik said. “Whether it's Tehran, whether it's Hezbollah ... by having these conversations with these, including Hamas itself, they are already signaling to the West that ‘we can talk with them. We have leverage over them.’ Whether it's true or not, That’s a completely different question.”

Russian state media amplified the Syrian regime’s claim that Putin and Assad believe that Israel is perpetrating “forcible relocation” of Palestinian civilians, whom the Israel Defense Forces have urged to evacuate from northern Gaza.

“Presidents Assad and Putin ... stressed the need to ensure immediate humanitarian aid deliveries to civilians in the Gaza Strip and the need for Israel to stop shelling attacks and forcible relocation practices against innocent people in Gaza,” Assad’s office said in a summary of his call that was translated into English by Russian state media.

Netanyahu’s envoy in Moscow put the blame for civilian casualties back on Hamas, which is using “human shields,” according to U.S. and Israeli officials.

"Hamas did not warn our population and attacked civilians. As for us, we are not targeting civilians," Israeli Ambassador Alexander Ben Zvi told TASS. "We are looking specifically for Hamas terrorists who are hiding behind the civilians’ backs.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Putin told Netanyahu that he regards the current violence as an extension of the wider “Palestinian-Israeli conflict” that has gone unresolved for decades.

“The focus was on the crisis situation caused by the dramatic escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” the Kremlin said in a readout of their call. “Russia’s principled commitment to continue its work to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and achieve a peaceful settlement through political and diplomatic means was reaffirmed.”