Israel has air-raided Lebanon destroying most of its bridges and other infrastructure facilities and killing at least 55 civilians after Hizbollah militants abducted two Israeli soldiers Wednesday. Israeli aircraft also bombed the Gaza Strip.
"This is currently the worst-case scenario for all parties to the conflict. This is a road leading nowhere," the Russian president's first deputy press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said.
Peskov, who is also a member of the organizing committee for the Group of Eight summit, said the latest developments in the region would be discussed at the summit, which opens in St. Petersburg Saturday.
He said the issue was likely to be discussed by G8 countries later in the day.
"In fact, we are witnessing a severe crisis of major concern to everybody," Peskov said.
He said there were no fundamental disagreements between the United States and Russia's positions on the Lebanese-Israeli crisis. "The differences between the United States and Russia on the Lebanon crisis are not strategically very large; both Russia and the United States are against terrorist attacks wherever they may come from. We are against the use of force and any forms of terrorism."
On Friday, Putin condemned hostage taking as means of resolving problems and the use of force in response.
"We will urge all the sides involved in the conflict to stop the bloodshed immediately," he said.
