MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called for using the United Nations as a platform to reduce the conflict potential in the Eastern Mediterranean.

"We think that any actions fraught with further aggravation of the conflict potential [in Eastern Mediterranean] are inadmissible. There is a universal platform for efficient resolution of disputes. It is the United Nations," he said in a video address to the online Rome MED Dialogues international conference. "A mechanism of delimitation of exclusive economic zones and continental shelves is envisaged in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. It should be used."

Relations between Greece and Turkey deteriorated dramatically after Ankara sent its Oruc Reis research vessel, escorted by warships, to conduct seismic survey on the Greek shelf near the island of Kastellorizo Ankara claimed to be part of its shelf. Greece put its Navy and Air Forces on high alert, warning it would defend its sovereign rights. Cyprus also slammed the Turkish drilling vessel’s actions as illegal.