Russia’s top diplomat likens Gaza ‘collective management’ plan to ‘reservation’

ISTANBUL

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday that reported plans for "collective management" of the Gaza Strip resemble the formation of a "reservation," comparing the rumors to a colonial arrangement.

“There are a lot of rumors now about some kind of agreement being drawn up. President Trump, I believe, said yesterday that a resolution is near. We don’t yet know what that means,” Lavrov told reporters following the high-level week of the 80th UN General Assembly session.

He pointed to speculation about a 21-point plan, noting that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was cited in media reports as a potential “Governor-General of Gaza.”

“Somewhere—I’m looking for the word now, but we’re in America—a reservation. According to rumors appearing in the media, someone wants to give reservations a respectable form, just as there are reservations here,” he added, cited by the Russian state-run RIA Novosti news agency.