OREANDA-NEWS. On May 1, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov met briefly in London with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the fringes of the meetings of the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee and Middle East Quartet.

The ministers discussed questions of bilateral relations in development of the accords reached between Vladimir Putin and George Bush at their meeting in Sochi on April 5-6, as well as pressing international problems, including the prospects for advancing the Middle East peace process and for resolving the situation surrounding the Iranian nuclear program.

The US Secretary of State wanted to know about the situation in the Georgian-Abkhaz zone of conflict. Rice’s attention was drawn to the Georgian authorities’ provocative actions regarding the situation around Abkhazia and South Ossetia and to the facts evidencing likely plans of Tbilisi to use force against Sukhumi and Tskhinvali.