Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday accused the Syrian opposition of seeking to disrupt plans for a peace conference by putting forward unrealistic demands.

"We are under the impression that the National Coalition and its regional sponsors are doing everything so as not to allow the start of the political process and achieve military intervention in Syria through any means possible," Lavrov told reporters.

Russian scientists claimed Wednesday they have discovered blood in the carcass of a woolly mammoth, adding that the rare find could boost their chances of cloning the prehistoric animal.

An expedition led by Russian scientists earlier this month uncovered the well-preserved carcass of a female mammoth on a remote island in the Arctic Ocean.

Russia warned on Wednesday that the European Union's decision to lift its arms embargo on the Syrian rebels harmed joint Russian-U.S. efforts for an international peace conference over the 26-month crisis.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the EU's original ban on arming the opposition made little sense because the 27-nation bloc's own laws prohibited it from sending weapons to "non-state entities" -- leaderships not formally recognized by the United Nations.

Russia said on Tuesday that it was imperative for Iran to join a proposed peace conference on Syria despite reservations from some Western nations such as France.

"The issue of Iran is key for us," Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying while on a visit to Paris. "Iran without question is one of the most important nations."

Israel "will know what to do" if Russia delivers anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, its defense minister said Tuesday, in an apparent allusion to another air strike on the war-torn neighboring country.

"The deliveries have not taken place, and I hope they do not. But if, by misfortune, they arrive in Syria, we will know what to do," Moshe Yaalon said.

Georgia on Tuesday lashed out at arch-foe Russia over the construction of a new barrier along its disputed frontline with the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

"The foreign ministry of Georgia expresses its deep concern over the installation of wire fences by the Russian occupation forces across the Tskhinvali region's occupation line," the ministry said in a statement.

France is to host a three-way push to hold an international peace conference aimed at ending Syria's conflict, but it has reservations over a role for Iran, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Sunday.

"On Monday night, I will receive my American and Russian counterparts and we will discuss" preparations for next month's planned conference, he told reporters in Abu Dhabi during a brief visit.

Twelve people were hospitalized and two of them were in a critical condition after a female suicide bomber blew herself up in Russia's restive Dagestan region Saturday, in the second bombing attack this week, a police spokeswoman said.

The bomber blew herself up not far from the interior ministry building in the center of Makhachkala, spokeswoman Fatina Ubaidatova told Agence France Presse.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet his Russian and French counterparts in Paris on Monday ahead of an expected international conference on ending Syria's conflict, officials said.

Kerry and Sergei Lavrov will meet "to continue discussions from their meeting just a few weeks ago in Russia, and provide updates as they plan ahead for the international conference on Syria," a State Department official said in a statement Friday.

International efforts to organize a Syria peace conference are at fever pitch, but in Jordan's Zaatari camp, Syrian refugees are more concerned with the misery of their daily lives than diplomatic maneuvering.

"To be honest, we're fed up with these conferences, there have been many... without results. We want a radical solution," said Saleh, a former laborer from Syria's southern Daraa province.