Lavrov and Fabius discuss situation in Middle East at bilateral meeting

PARIS, June 24. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his French counterpart Laurent Fabius have discussed the situation in the Middle East at their meeting in Paris on Tuesday. "Special attention was paid to the situation in the Middle East, first of all, to the crisis in Syria and around it. It was stressed that it is necessary to speed up efforts in looking for political solution on the basis of Geneva communique, that the crisis should be solved by Syrians themselves on the basis on mutual accord," Lavrov told a press conference. Lavrov and Fabius also discussed the Israeli-Palestinian settlement, "taking into account the tour which the French foreign minister recently made of the countries in the region." "We have common understanding of the necessity to avoid maintaining the deadlock in this inveterate conflict," Lavrov said. "The unsettled nature of the conflict fuels extremist sentiment and helps terrorists recruit supporters," he warned. "We agreed that the political process should resume as soon as possible," Lavrov added. Read more