Moscow calls for adhering to road map

Special envoy of the Russian Foreign Minister to the Middle East Andrei Vdovin considers the situation in the region to be tense and dangerous.

"The situation in the Middle East does not only remain tense but, as a matter of fact, is becoming even more dangerous than ever in the past few years", Vdovin stated upon his arrival in Lebanon.

He arrived in Beirut from Cairo within his trip to the Middle East together with new special envoy of the Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Kalugin.

According to him, the Middle East conflict zone tends to expand, in particular, in the wake of Israel's strike on Syria, which is dangerous, Vdovin opines.

He stressed that it was necessary to apply maximum efforts to stop the expansion of the conflict zone.

For his part, Alexander Kalugin expressed regret that today "there are not so many opportunities to extricate the situation from the deadlock".

"Today there is one substantial instrument which can help defuse the situation. It is the road map," Kalugin noted.

"For this reason, we try to convince the sides of the need to fulfil their obligations according to this plan, and to renounce from moves which can complicate the situation and lead to unpredictable tragic consequences", he said.

"It is now difficult to judge how successfully this is being achieved", Kalugin added.

On Tuesday morning, Vdovin and Kalugin will hold talks with Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Information of Lebanon Michel Samaha. Afterwards, they will be received by Lebanese President Emil Lahud. Later they will meet with chairman of parliament Nabih Berri, and in the evening - with Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri.

Before coming to Lebanon the Russian diplomats visited Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territories. They will leave for Jordan on Thursday, and will then visit Israel and the Palestinian territories again. Syria will be the last leg in their Middle Eastern tour.