Sergey Lavrov said Iran’s participation in the Makkah Agreement would be considered a practical step in the right direction for regional security.
The Russian foreign minister made the remarks at a meeting with students and academic staff at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in Moscow. He said countries could better understand the need to avoid creating threats and establish a lasting security process after successive episodes of military activity.
Lavrov said the Makkah Agreement formed by Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan was based on a shared understanding of security and defense. He said the framework would not be limited to the Gulf countries and that the process could produce positive results if Egypt and Algeria also expressed interest.
Lavrov said reaching an agreement on the conditions under which Iran could join the agreement would be consistent with the security approach advocated by Russia. He added that no country needed to claim priority.
A joint defense agreement was signed in Makkah
Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed a joint defense agreement in Makkah on August 7.
The agreement was established on the basis of shared responsibility and regional initiative amid growing regional and international instability.
Lavrov called for pragmatism and a balance of interests
Lavrov said Russia would not support agreements that failed to balance interests and stressed that every compromise should be shaped around pragmatism. Saying that Russia had experienced disappointment many times in the past, Lavrov argued that the sincerity of the actors on the other side should also be questioned.
Lavrov said any compromise lacking pragmatism and a balance of interests would be unacceptable to Russia.
Criticism of the OSCE
Lavrov argued that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe had completely discredited itself. He said the organization initially aimed to reconcile the West and East, but that a different framework emerged when the United States and Canada, along with European countries, were included in the structure during its establishment.
Lavrov said describing the OSCE as merely experiencing a crisis would not fully explain the current situation. He alleged that the principle of consensus had been violated and that some mechanisms within the organization had acted unilaterally.
