MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. Russia views the July 2 terrorist act in Damascus as an attempt to obstruct political settlement in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The ministry recalled that the Syrian security service on Sunday detected three mine-studded vehicles drive into Damascus. They rendered two vehicles harmless while the third vehicle managed to get into the city center where a suicide bomber set the explosive device off.

"As a result of the explosion, eighteen people died and dozens of peaceful residents received wounds of various degrees of complexity," the statement said.

"We condemn this bloody sortie that was committed on the background of stepped-up efforts in the interests of political settlement of the internal domestic conflict in Syria," the ministry said. It recalled that the fifth round of high-level consultations on Syria is to take place in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on July 4-5 and a new round of pan-Syrian talks in Geneva has been scheduled for July 5.

"We assess a yet another extremist action as a convulsive attempt to obstruct the consolidation of encouraging tendencies in the sphere of launching the political process in Syria," the statement indicated.

"We urge all the international partners to treat the threat of terrorism and radicalism in the Middle East seriously and to conduct resolute struggle against this evil by coordinating efforts on the collective grounds in line with international law and provisions of the UN Charter," it said.