MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/. Efforts continue for obtaining US visas allowing the Russian delegation, headed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, to attend the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) session in New York.
Most of the requested visas have been issued by the US State Department, while Moscow is still waiting to obtain the remaining visas, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters.
"Visas are in the process of being issued. Most of them have already been received, but we have not yet received all of the visas that we requested. The visa issuance process is underway; there are still a few days left. I hope that visas will be issued to everyone who applied for them," the senior diplomat said, answering a question from TASS.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS that Lavrov would visit New York to participate in the UNSC debate on the Middle East as well as a meeting on Ukraine.
At a briefing on Wednesday, Zakharova noted that the visit was scheduled for January 22-24. At the meeting devoted to finding a settlement to the Middle East crisis, the parties will discuss efforts to resolve the ongoing hostilities in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone. Regarding the UN session on the Ukrainian crisis, the spokeswoman explained that Moscow considered it "a good opportunity to reiterate to the world community Russia’s position" on the need to use political and diplomatic means to settle the conflict while taking into account "legitimate Russian security interests."