ISTANBUL

The Russian foreign minister on Monday said the West is pushing the Middle East region to the brink of a “big war,” leading to a surge in terrorism and refugee flows.

“Now we see how the Anglo-Saxons are literally pushing the Middle East to the brink of a big war,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a panel discussion during the Russia International Exhibition and Forum in Moscow.

Lavrov went on to argue that this approach used by the West is “fully manifested” in Ukraine, Iraq, Libya and Syria.

“Other results of such a policy are a surge in terrorism and extremism, broken human destinies, destroyed families, millions-strong flows of refugees,” he added.

Lavrov said the West is accustomed to “solving its own problems at the expense of others, to exploiting other people’s resources.”

He argued that NATO is a “relic of the past,” adding that the alliance is “spreading its tentacles” all over the world which may lead it to “overstrain” itself.

“You can’t so brazenly and persistently impose your hegemony on everyone, times are not the same,” he said.​​​​​​​