Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Department of the Russian MFA, Ambassador Sergey Vershinin and Director for North Africa, Middle East, Arabian Peninsula, Iran and Iraq of the European External Action Service Christian Berger held expert consultations on the Middle East and North Africa on May 7 in Moscow.
The participants exchanged views on a broad range of regional issues, including the situation in Syria and Iraq, inter alia in the context of the terrorist threat posed by ISIS and other extremist groups. Sergey Vershinin and Christian Berger also discussed the situation in Yemen and security issues in the Gulf, as well as Libya, Egypt, Lebanon and prospects of the Middle East peace process. They underlined the need for the regional problems to be resolved by political and diplomatic means, on the basis of a broad inclusive dialogue and in compliance with international law. The participants also expressed their concern regarding the current stalemate on the Palestinian-Israeli track, urged the peace process to be resumed as soon as possible and emphasized the readiness to continue work in this direction within the framework of the Middle East Quartet.
