Baku: Regional problems, including the situation in the zone of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict were the focus of a telephone call between Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov of Russia and Hossein Amir Abdollahian of Iran, TASS reports citing the Iranian foreign ministry. "In a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Hossein Amir Abdollahian touched upon several issues of bilateral relations, as well as the regional agenda, including the developments in the war in Gaza and the West Bank," it said. Apart from that, the sides discussed the results of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's visit to Moscow, where he held talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. In this context, the Iranian foreign minister stressed the necessity of further consultations between the two countries' senior officials. According to the Iranian foreign ministry, Lavrov "described the recent meeting between Raisi and Putin as very important." Putin and Raisi held talks on December 7. These talks follow ed Putin's visit to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on December 6. Source: Azerbaijan State News Agency Russia expresses its readiness to hold negotiations on the Azerbaijani-Armenian settlement and hopes that Baku and Yerevan take into account the relevance of Moscow's proposal, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Galuzin said, APA reports. 'Our proposal to hold peaceful negotiations on a settlement between Azerbaijan and Armenia at Moscow is an open initiative for our partners from Azerbaijan and Armenia. We hope that Baku and Yerevan remember this,' Galuzin emphasized. He added that Russia is always ready for such work, answering a question about a possible meeting of the foreign ministers of the three countries in Moscow. Galuzin expressed his conviction that the expansion of the EU civilian observation mission in Armenia does not contribute to the resolution of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In his opinion, this will only increase tension in Transcaucasia. The deputy minister emphasized that such a decision would not be useful for promoting the Azerbaijani-Armenian s ettlement, and considered it useless to involve the European Union in this context. He also noted that the EU policy in the Transcaucasus, aimed at ousting Russia from the region, only brings additional tension and mistrust. He noted that the European Union's strategy in the South Caucasus exclusively involves ousting Russia from this region. 'We see that the policy of the European Union in Transcaucasia is aimed exclusively at pushing Russia out of there, while using our achievements in the process of a peaceful settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan,' the deputy minister emphasized. Source: Azeri-Press News Agency