MOSCOW, June 24. /TASS/. Russia and Egypt are concerned by the US intention to promote behind-the-scenes ideas on the Israeli-Palestinian settlement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference on Monday, following Russia-Egypt 2+2 talks of Foreign and Defense Ministers.
"The special emphasis was put on the Arab-Israeli conflict. We welcomed Egypt’s constructive role in looking for ways to restore the Palestinian unity," the Russian foreign affairs chief underlined. "We have expressed concerns arising in relation to the US attempts to promote ideas devised behind the scenes, which stipulate giving up the two-state principal of resolving the Palestinian issue and departure from the international legal basis of the conflict settlement, including the UN resolutions, the Madrid Principles and the Arab Peace Initiative." "Russia and Egypt confirmed commitment to these fundamental documents," Lavrov added.
At the same time, the Russian chief diplomat pointed out the "close nature of Moscow’s and Cairo’s approaches to ensuring peace and security in the Persian Gulf region, aligning measures of transparency and confidence building." "We drew attention to the Russian initiative on establishing a collective security architecture in the Persian Gulf," Lavrov said. "We discussed the upcoming November Conference on creating a weapon of mass destruction free zone in the Middle East." "Moscow and Cairo have agreed to align approaches in preparation for this important meeting," the Minister added.
Lavrov stressed that Russia and Egypt have identical positions on Syria, which stipulate the need to fully eliminate the terrorist presence and strict adherence to all the principles of reinstating the Syrian relation with the Arab League," he continued.
Speaking of the situation in Libya, the Russian Foreign Minister pointed out that Russian and Egypt "see no alternative to the political settlement of the crisis." "We believe that all the Libyan sides should unite in looking for ways to restore the statehood of their country and put up the joint resistance to terrorism and extremist ideology," Lavrov stressed. "We have considered other crisis situation in the region from our concurring positions, particularly the situations in Sudan and Yemen."
"Our colleagues from the Ministries of Defense scrupulously discussed the issues of military and military technical cooperation in relation to the Syrian, Libyan and a number of other conflicts," Lavrov said.