During a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, Russian President Vladimir Putin commented for the first time on the fighting between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, and also mentioned the war in Ukraine, calling the US policy in the Middle East "a failure." This was reported by representatives of the RIA Novosti agency.
"And the Ukrainian crisis (Russian aggression against Ukraine - ed.) continues, and, unfortunately, we see a sharp deterioration in the situation in the Middle East. I think that many will agree with me that this is a vivid example of the failure of the United States' policy in the Middle East," Putin said.
Putin accuses the United States of what he sees as "trying to monopolize the settlement process" and not seeking acceptable compromises for both sides.
The Russian president believes that the United States "put forward its own ideas about how it should be done and put pressure on both sides."
