"[Moscow announced earlier this year] the decision to send a solid batch of grain free of charge as our humanitarian aid to six African countries that are on the list of the World Food Program. By the end of the year, these deliveries will be fulfilled, and we will continue our humanitarian activity in this area next year," Lavrov told reporters after a meeting with League of Arab States (LAS) Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
On Israel-Palestine Conflict Escalation
"We summed up our position on the unacceptability of any violence, the unacceptability of causing damage and death to civilians in whatever country they are in, the unacceptability of taking women and children hostage," Lavrov mentioned.
"Instead of working closely with the League of Arab States, the Americans are trying to monopolize mediation efforts and divert the dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis away from a political settlement, away from the creation of a Palestinian state and to replace the implementation of UN Security Council decisions with talk of alleviating the socio-economic problems of the Palestinian population, about establishing some kind of ongoing contacts between Palestinians and Israelis to ensure daily security on the ground," Lavrov told reporters.
"As you expressed about the existence of many initiatives to resolve the situation in the Middle East, I honestly do not know about initiatives. There are calls to immediately stop the bloodshed and sit down at the negotiating table, but there can be only one initiative — the decisions on the settlement of the Palestinian problem that were adopted in the United Nations organization," he said.