Russia's Lavrov to address Arab League on Sunday

Cairo: Russia's top diplomat will address the Arab League at its Cairo headquarters Sunday, the organization said, days after Russia took part in a summit hosted by Iran, a regional rival of some Arab states.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia will meet Arab League head Ahmed Aboul Gheit and representatives of the 22 nations that make up the pan-Arab bloc, it said on Thursday.

The United States has sought to isolate Russia on the global stage over its invasion of Ukraine, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken refusing to meet Lavrov earlier in July at a Group of 20 meeting in Bali.

Asked about Lavrov s trip, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was "less concerned with whom Foreign Minister Lavrov and his colleagues are communicating and more focused on the messages they re hearing".

"We understand that countries around the world have individual unique relations with Russia. But there are basic principles," he said, including "the idea that might in a 21st century can t make right."

On Tuesday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi hosted a summit that was attended by his Russian and Turkish counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The meeting was nominally about conflict-ridden Syria, where Iran and Russia back the government while Turkey supports anti-regime groups.

Turkey later announced that it had reached an agreement to allow grain out of blockaded Ukrainian ports.

The war in Ukraine has caused food insecurity in Arab nations, many of which are heavily dependent on wheat imports from the former Soviet state.

The Tehran summit came days after US President Joe Biden toured the Middle East, where he visited Israel, the Palestinian territories and Saudi Arabia.

In Jerusalem, Biden and Israel s caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid announced a new security pact which commits Washington to never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.

And in Saudi Arabia, he stressed that the US "will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran".

Some Arab countries, namely Sunni-ruled ones, have tense ties with Iran which they accuse of involvement in many regional conflicts, including the wars in Syria.

SOURCE: AFP