Ensuring the safety of international navigation in the Red Sea should be tackled head-on diplomatically, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following talks with Yemeni Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak, Paralel.Az reports citing TASS.

"We agree with our Yemeni partners that ensuring the safety of international navigation in the waters of the Red Sea should be a priority for all responsible members of the international community, and this task should be resolved by political and diplomatic means," Lavrov pointed out.

"We expressed our conviction that the increase in tension in the adjacent waters of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which arose due to the shelling of commercial vessels by the Yemeni Houthis, was largely a consequence of the unprecedented escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as well as the Yemeni crisis, which has dragged on for nine years," he continued. "We do not justify the shelling of commercial ships, but we also cannot justify the aggressive actions that the United States and Britain are taking against the territory of the Republic of Yemen under this pretext, without any international mandate in the form of a UN Security Council resolution," he added.