UNITED NATIONS, January 18. /TASS/. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres could hold a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who will visit New York to attend UN Security Council meetings from January 22 to 24, said Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the secretary general.

"Yes, he will meet with [Lavrov]," Dujarric said at a news conference.

He was also asked what Guterres expected to discuss with Lavrov.

"Whatever the foreign minister wants to discuss. I think it is not difficult to imagine the number of issues that need to be discussed," the spokesman replied.

Zakharova earlier said at a news conference that Lavrov plans to take part in the quarterly open debate of the UN Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue, as well as in the Security Council meeting on the Ukrainian issue, which has been convened by Russia.

It is expected that at the event on the Middle East settlement discussion will continue about solutions for the current large-scale crisis in the area of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. With respect to the planned discussion of the Ukrainian issue, Zakharova said Moscow views it as "a good opportunity to use the high platform of the United Nations to once again convey Russia's position to the international community," including political and diplomatic ways of resolving the crisis while taking into account "legitimate Russian security interests.".