News / Brèves Back to previous selection / Retour à la sélection précédente Russia Is ’Extremely Concerned’ 16 November 2012 In a Nov. 15 telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Russia’s President Putin "called on the parties to exercise restraint and avoid the path of escalating violence, whose victims include civilians, and to do everything to return the situation to its normal course," the Kremlin reported. Speaking the same day in a news conference in Saudi Arabia, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said that Moscow is "extremely concerned" about the outbreak of violence in the region and in the Palestinian territories. Lavrov was in Saudi Arabia for meetings with Foreign Minister Prince Saud, and Saudi Intelligence head (and 9/11 author) Prince Bandar. Also Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters that any countries which armed the so-called Syrian rebels would be in "gross violation of the fundamental norms of international law." Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, who is also Russia’s representative in international talks with Iran over its nuclear program, met with Iran’s top negotiator in a surprise visit to Tehran on Wednesday, news agencies reported.