Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that failure to establish a Palestinian state will cause continued instability in the Middle East.

Lavrov said during the 13th Middle East Conference of the Valdai International Forum that Russia has repeatedly warned that the chronic Palestinian problem, which has not been resolved for many decades, is constantly escalating the conflict in the Middle East, so a binding legal basis must be found for a final solution to the conflict.

He announced that Russia does not see any prospects for achieving stability in the Gaza Strip in light of Israel's intention to carry out a military operation in Rafah.

Lavrov revealed that he "presented the solution to the conflict to his Israeli colleagues many times, but they ignored him."

He also rejected "that what happened on October 7th was a reason for implementing collective punishment against the Palestinians," explaining that "the United Nations, the United States, and the European Union tried to impose unrealistic solutions on the Gaza Strip."

Lavrov called for finding a way out of the disastrous situation caused by American policy in the Middle East.

Last January, Lavrov accused the United States of America of obstructing all efforts aimed at a ceasefire in Gaza.

Lavrov referred to his country's proposal to hold a "Palestinian-Palestinian" meeting to overcome internal divisions.

Hamas welcomes a “Palestinian-Palestinian” meeting

In turn, the leader of the Hamas movement, Muhammad Nazzal, on Tuesday welcomed the Russian Foreign Minister’s invitation to hold a meeting between the Palestinian forces to overcome the internal division.

Nazzal said in an interview with the Russian “Sputnik” agency, commenting on Lavrov’s invitation: “We welcome any Palestinian-Palestinian meeting or dialogue, but on the condition that the dialogue be serious and that we set rules for this dialogue because we do not want to repeat the long process of meetings and dialogues in which we have exhausted ourselves.” At times and times without reaching real understandings, or if we reach understandings that are not translated into reality.”

The Hamas leader added: We want to translate words into actions, and I think that this meeting is long overdue because we have now spent more than 4 months in the battle of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” and the comprehensive national dialogue that rises to the great responsibility that the Palestinian people aspire to has not taken place.