MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. The Russian and Egyptian Foreign Ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Sameh Shoukry, discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Wednesday and agreed that the political solution has no alternative in Libya crisis, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the two foreign ministers’ talks over the phone.

"[The two foreign ministers] had an extensive exchange of views on prospects for the situation in the Middle East and North Africa. In line with common approaches, the ministers confirmed that there is no alternative to a political solution to the Libya conflict. They emphasized the importance of terminating hostilities and restarting substantive negotiations between the parties to the conflict in Libya," the ministry said.

"In this context, they supported the program, put forward by Speaker of Libya’s House of Representatives Aguila Saleh Issa, of pulling the country out of the crisis, which could lay the foundation for an intra-Libyan dialogue promoting the Berlin process," it said.

The Foreign Ministry added that while touching upon the Middle East, Lavrov and Shoukry "called to step up joint efforts of the international community, including participants of the [Middle East] Quartet of International Mediators and members of the Arab League, so as to resume direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations as soon as possible under the US auspices to resolve all the issues of the final status and to achieve a comprehensive peace agreement."

"It was stated that the implementation of plans to annex some Palestinian territories in the West Bank will jeopardize a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem and might trigger a new dangerous escalation of violence in the region," the foreign ministry added.

The two top diplomats touched on the Egyptian-Ethiopian relations concerning the Grand Renaissance Hydroelectric Project on the Blue Nile River. Lavrov hailed an agreement aimed at resumption of negotiations between Cairo and Addis Ababa in the near future and underscored that the talks should restart as soon as possible to seek a compromise, which will help overcome the ongoing disagreements.

Lavrov and Shoukry highly praised the current Russian-Egyptian relations and said that both Moscow and Cairo remain committed to the agreements signed by the two countries’ presidents to deepen multifaceted cooperation, which were based on the 2018 comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation treaty, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.