Russia, France Urge Political Solutions to Syria, Israel-Palestine Crises

PARIS (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, Russia’s top diplomat travelled to Paris on Tuesday to meet with his counterparts – France’s Laurent Fabius, Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Ukraine’s Pavlo Klimkin – to address mutual concerns on several international crises.

"Our discussion focused mainly on the situation in the Middle East, predominantly the Syrian crisis. We underscored the importance of reenergizing efforts to find political solutions in the framework of the Geneva communique of June 2012, which stipulates that the crisis must be settled by the Syrian people based on a mutually acceptable agreement," Lavrov said.

He added the resurgence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a major concern for both Moscow and Paris.

"We agreed that it was important to find a way out of this deadlock since the failure to settle this conflict has been fuelling extremist sentiments, making it easier [for terrorists] to recruit members into their ranks. So we reached an understanding that political process should be restarted as soon as possible," Lavrov said on the heels of Tuesday’s meeting.