Russia calls on all sides to show maximum restraint around Libya to allow the Libyan people to have their legal right to elect and be elected, Gennady Kuzmin, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, said on Tuesday, speaking at a meeting of the world organization's Security Council on the situation in the African country.
The Russian side deplores that Libyan statehood has been razed to the ground to suit the ambitions of Western countries. In his words, the once-prosperous Libya "still lies in ruins, it has to be rebuilt literally bit by bit". "As for those who were protected - the civilian population - they went through the horrors of a civil war of all against all, complete chaos, total disorganization and destruction thanks to the efforts of NATO benefactors," Kuzmin reminded. The diplomat pointed out that only a decade later there are "positive moments in the difficult process of political settlement".
"General elections in Libya are scheduled for December 24. We urge all sides to show maximum restraint in order to allow the long-suffering Libyan people to fulfill their legal right to elect and be elected," said the deputy Russian representative.
On November 22, the Libyan election commission finished accepting applications from candidates for the presidential elections, which are scheduled for December 24 and will be held simultaneously with the parliamentary elections. On Tuesday, it became known that Jan Kubiš, the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Libya, had resigned.
Commenting on Karim Khan's assumption of the post of Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the diplomat expressed the hope that "his arrival <...> will lead to correction of those significant distortions, which have been consistently pointed out <...> by the [Russian] delegation, and will probably bring the court at least to the partial restoration of its badly damaged reputation." According to him, certain positive developments are already visible. "For the first time there is something in the report on the investigation of the Libyan situation for which we can express our gratitude. It's about honesty," Kuzmin noted. - "The prosecutor's office has been open about the lack of significant progress in the case. Our delegation has been saying the same thing for a decade. We are glad that the court has finally stopped imitating everything and admitted the obvious".
On the whole, the line of the court with regard to the Libyan case, stated the deputy permanent representative of the RF, remains unchanged. "All the blame is put on only one side of the conflict. We still haven't seen any cases of alleged crimes by the rebels and ISIS [the Islamic State terrorist organization banned in Russia]," he pointed out. - "The court did not even try to investigate the illegal NATO airstrikes on the territory of Libya, which caused numerous civilian casualties".
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS