TEHRAN – President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed the Zionist regime’s ongoing assault on Lebanon in a telephone conversation on Friday.

“Never has the UN Security Council been so helpless as the United States and Britain are trying to buy time for the occupying regime to continue its crimes with their political games,” Ahmadinejad said.

He called on the independent countries to step up joint efforts to bring an end to the unjust war.

If the international institutes, especially the UN Security Council, continue to act like this they will be completely discredited and the international community will face many problems in establishing peace in the future, he observed.

He lamented opposition to a Russian-draft resolution in Security Council by Western countries calling for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon.

Ahmadinejad said that the massive anger of the regional nations over Israel’s atrocities is increasing everyday which may get out of hand and lead to a bigger crisis.

For his part, Putin renewed calls for an immediate cease-fire.

He urged for the intervention of the Security Council to find a diplomatic solution which would guarantee the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon and all other regional countries.

Putin called for the continuation of Iran-Russia consultations over the Middle East crisis.

“We should do our outmost to reach our common goal which is the prevention of the massacre of the innocent people,” he stated.