Russia insistently urges the Lebanese government, political and ethnic religious groups to resolve the crisis through dialogue, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"We repeat the insistent appeal to the government and all political and ethnic religious groups in that country to search for a way out of the crisis through dialog, respect for constitutional norms, reasonable concessions and mutual consideration of lawful interests," the ministry said in a statement.

"Utmost measures should be urgently taken to prevent the development of a confrontation between government supporters and the opposition into disturbances and clashes, especially those ethnic and religious," the ministry said.

The situation in Lebanon has been deteriorating for days as clashes broke out between Lebanese anti- and pro-government supporters. Three people were killed and over 150 were wounded in clashes and fire exchanges in Beirut on Thursday.

Source: Xinhua