If Iraq collapses, entire Middle East could be destabilized – Lavrov

If Iraq collapses it could destabilize the entire Middle East and the adjacent regions, with unrest lasting for years, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday. "If Iraq collapses – and considering that Libya has almost collapsed already, and someone apparently wants Syria to share a similar fate –

the whole region would simply explode and unrest would become its dominant feature. And it would affect not just the Middle East and Northern Africa, but the adjacent regions as well," Lavrov said.

Lavrov also noted that during his last phone conversation with the US Secretary of State John Kerry they both talked "mostly about Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS) rather than about Ukraine."

Not just the US and UK, but all of the region’s countries should participate in dealing with the Iraqi crisis, Lavrov believes.

The governments of Iraq and Syria seek to contain the advance of ISIS militants who seek to establish control over a large oil-rich territory.

"We urge others to make conclusions out of what happened in Iraq, Libya and Yemen – the countries where not all of the problems were dealt with. The country’s unity is still being severely tested. It’s not London and Washington that should make the decisions, like it was in Iraq in 2003, but all of the region’s countries, all of the neighbors of Iraq," Lavrov said.

He also added that as permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia and China would also participate in "this contemplation."

"Let me emphasize it once again, all of the Iraq’s neighbors should be at the negotiations table, just like Syria’s neighbors should all discuss the Syrian issue. And I believe that a similar approach should be adopted in dealing with the crisis in Afghanistan," Lavrov said.

According to him, if the West agrees and "would stop thinking that it’s the only one capable of devising a strategy for the entire international community, the situation would develop in a much more positive way."

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_06_28/If-Iraq-collapses-whole-of-Middle-East-could-be-destabilized-Lavrov-6718/