Russia is determined to work for an immediate end to the bloodshed in the Middle East and a transition to a political settlement of the crisis, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

"The Russian side emphasized its determination to work for an immediate end to the bloodshed and a transition to a political settlement of the crisis with an eye on the resumption of the peace process based on UN Security Council resolutions and other decisions of the international community with the purpose of preventing a repetition of the current developments and restoring lasting peace in the region," the ministry said.

Russia's stance was detailed at a meeting of Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov and a group of Arab ambassadors and the charge d'affaires of the League of Arab States in Moscow, a release by the ministry's information department said.

The Arab ambassadors expressed deep concern about the developments in the Middle East, in particular in Lebanon.

The release quoted Lebanese ambassador Assem Jaber as saying over 830 people have been killed and over 3,000 wounded in Israeli attacks since the beginning of the Lebanese-Israeli conflict and the overwhelming majority of them are civilians, including women and children.

The report also said that the number of displaced persons in Lebanon has now reached 900,000 and enormous damage has been done to both civilian infrastructure and the environment.

Source: Xinhua