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.