RABAT, November 1 (Itar-Tass) – Russia and Morocco have agreed to cooperate very closely as members of the UN Security Council, Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the UN told Itar-Tass Monday.
He arrived in Morocco to hold consultations with the Moroccan officials following the country’s recent election as a nonpermanent member of the Security Council.
Churkin said he had had a very detailed discussion with Foreign Minister Taieb Fasi Fihri. In the course of the conversation, they exchanged opinions on the most pressing issues of international relations, including the situation around peace settlement in the Middle East, the pressing problems of the African continent, and the situation in Libya.
“It so happened that our meeting with Moroccan counterparts took place at the very same hour that the UN Security Council was adopting a resolution on the spread of weaponry from Libya where the conflict made its stockpiles practically ownerless,” Churkin said.
“The resolution makes emphasis on shoulder-carried antiaircraft missiles that may be quite a dangerous kind of weaponry, especially if they fall into the terrorists’ hands,” he said.
“We hope this resolution, as well as the one on ending the foreign operation in Libya that the UN passed last week will help draw a bottom line under the Libyan crisis and switch the situation there back to the political rails with due assistance from the UN,” Churkin said.
Itar-Tass said in a report from New York earlier the UN Security Council on Monday unanimous passed Resolution 2017 drafted by Russia. It urged the authorities in Libya and neighboring states to prevent and cut short the terrorists’ craving for the shoulder-carried antiaircraft complexes.
The resolution highlighted the dangers that the proliferation of all the types of weaponry from the Libyan territory posed to stability in the region. It made an especial stress on the antiaircraft complexes.