Afrasianet - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that several countries are seeking to involve Iran in the conflict in the Middle East in order to provoke a major war there.

"A lot of attention (in the meetings on the margins) was of course paid to the problems of the Middle East, the outbreak of conflict directly in the Palestinian territories, in Lebanon, in Syria, and the problems on Iraqi territory," he said during a press conference after his participation in the high-level week of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly.

He added: "The situation is about attempts to implicate Iran in order to provoke a completely major war in the Middle East," and Lavrov stressed that "Russia is interested in ending the war in the

Gaza Strip immediately, but the United States wants to monopolize the peace process."

According to the minister, on the sidelines of the session he discussed with his colleagues conflicts in the Sahara and Sahel region, Sudan and other parts of Africa and Afghanistan.

"Of course we also took the opportunity to convey our current assessments of what is happening in relation to the Ukrainian crisis," the Russian foreign minister stressed.

Lavrov pointed out that the leader of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, seeks to directly involve NATO countries in the fighting.

"Zelensky is also doing everything he can to directly involve NATO countries in hostilities, and then he will simply step aside and look at what he thinks will save him," Lavrov said, comparing Israel's actions in Lebanon to those of the Kiev regime.