Qatar Hails Russia's Stance on Settling Persian Gulf Crisis

"We believe it is necessary to preserve unity in the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council," Al Thani said. "We welcome the position of Russia in favor of the soonest settlement of the crisis between the Persian Gulf countries and thank the Russian president for this stance."

The minister also called to back the efforts of Kuwait’s Emir in this issue. Besides, he noted that Doha values Moscow’s position on the inter-Palestinian reconciliation and uniting Palestinian political forces. He also spoke about peace efforts in the Middle East. "We back the Arab peace initiative; it should be a basis for a peace plan of settlement between Palestine and Israel."

Qatar’s foreign minister also welcomed Moscow’s efforts on settlement in Libya. "Russia is holding dialogue with all parties to the Libyan crisis," he said. "We hope this will contribute to reinstating stability in Libya."

Diplomatic crisis surrounding Qatar should be resolved by efforts of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council, Russian top diplomat pointed out, TASS news agency reported.

"We are convinced that it is advisable to solve this issue as part of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council," Lavrov said after his talks in Qatar.

Russia is aware of Kuwait’s mediating initiative on settling the diplomatic crisis and its proposals, he said. "But we won’t put forward any ideas ourselves," Lavrov added.

Russia and Qatar are interested in coordinating their efforts in energy sector and oil production, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed.

"We have reaffirmed our mutual interest in continuing our coordination in the energy sector, in oil production and as part of the forum of gas exporters," the diplomat noted.

"There is a growing interest in mutual increase of investments between the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Qatar Investment Agency," he said.