MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. Moscow wants the situation in the Persian Gulf to get back to normal and plans to make every effort to help Arab countries and Iran find solutions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference on Tuesday, following talks with Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi.
"Russia has every interest in the normalization of the situation in the Gulf zone. We have been promoting our initiatives for many years, offering them for discussion to our colleagues and friends, and taking their comments into account. Over the past couple of years, we have gathered experts, political scientists from Arab countries, from Iran, who quite positively assessed our efforts and made many useful comments," he said. "But, of course, this activity can only contribute to the creation of conditions for a practical solution to security issues in the Gulf zone, because agreements should be reached, of course, by the coastal countries themselves."
Lavrov said the resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which was also facilitated by Omani friends and formalized in the People's Republic of China, was a very important step toward creating the necessary conditions.
"But there are many challenges ahead, including full, unconditional normalization between all Arab countries and the Islamic Republic of Iran. And after that, of course, additional measures will have to be taken to build mutual trust, transparency, as far as security issues are concerned, and ideally cooperation on these issues," the minister said.
Lavrov said that there are still many things there that require the attention of both the coastal countries themselves and those who are genuinely interested in helping them find such solutions. "And Russia, of course, is one of these countries. We will do everything to help our friends," the minister stated.