All news

NATO compliance with UN mandate in Libya to be discussed at General Assembly - Lavrov.

No matter how certain politicians try to ascribe global functions to NATO, the latter is unable to substitute the UN

UNITED NATIONS, September 20 (Itar-Tass) —— The NATO coalition’s compliance with the UN Security Council mandate in Libya is an important item on the agenda of the UN General Assembly session, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

“There is no doubt that the debates in New York will touch upon the NATO coalition’s fulfillment of the UN Security Council resolution on Libya and its compliance with the UN Security Council mandate, primarily, in the part of the protection of civil population. We have plenty of questions to NATO,” said the minister, who leads the Russian delegation to the session.

“NATO, or, to be more exact, its certain members, tried to substitute the United Nations from the 1990s to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, in which Germany and France did not support their allies,” he said. “The North Atlantic alliance realized that the international community does not recognize the legitimacy of its actions without approval by the UN Security Council.”

“No matter how certain politicians try to ascribe global functions to NATO, the latter is unable to substitute the UN. I think that sober-minded people in alliance member-countries are perfectly aware of that,” he said.

“NATO has been learning to play by the UN roles in the recent years. A declaration of cooperation between the secretariats of the two organizations was signed in 2008, and the adherence to international laws was declared in the new strategic concept of the alliance. It is extremely important to confirm this adherence with individual and collective actions of NATO states,” he said.

“The UN has been actively broadening the range of regional partners and involving the latter in the common network of ‘the responsible’ for regional affairs,” he said. “Against the backdrop of the growing demand for the efficient ‘division of labor’ between the UN and regional unions, the leading role of the Security Council in the provision of international peace and security, including the authorization and control over military operations, which is affirmed by the UN Charter, remains invariable,” he said.