Putin and the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia discuss the Middle East crisis situation.

On April 2nd local time, the Kremlin announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed. They discussed in detail a series of issues related to the Middle East crisis. Both sides expressed serious concern over the worsening regional military and political situation, civilian casualties, and the destruction of strategic infrastructure. They emphasized that hostilities must be stopped as soon as possible and that political and diplomatic efforts should be strengthened to achieve a long-term resolution of the conflict, taking into full account the legitimate interests of all parties. The two sides pointed out that the energy extraction and transportation issues caused by the crisis are negatively impacting global energy security. In this context, both sides highlighted the importance of their cooperation within the “OPEC+” framework to stabilize the global oil market. They expressed satisfaction with the high level of multi-faceted interactions between the two countries, and noted that related cooperation is developing in a friendly and mutually beneficial manner. (CCTV News)