Russia continues to call on the UN Security Council to approve the Geneva statement of the Action Group for Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Urgent and effective measures should be taken to immediately stop the bloodshed on all sides and launch a wide intra-Syrian dialogue… including on the basis of the Geneva communiqué of the Action Group for Syria,” the ministry said.

“The document's approval by the UN Security Council would contribute to the soonest possible achievement of that goal,” it said.

At a meeting on Syria in Geneva on June 30, foreign ministers from UN Security Council permanent member states and from countries neighboring Syria proposed establishing a transitional Syrian government that would comprise both the Syrian authorities and opposition forces, but incessant fighting in Syria has made it impossible to launch a dialogue.

The ministry expressed concern that the situation in Syria remains tense.

The Syrian conflict has claimed up to 20,000 lives according to estimates by various Syrian opposition groups. The Syrian authorities say 8,000 were killed.

The West is pushing for President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster while Russia and China are trying to prevent outside interference in Syria, saying that the Assad regime and the opposition are both to blame for the bloodshed.