Russia will continue to help resolve the conflict in Libya and look for ways out of the deepest crisis in this Arab country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
“We will try to find a way out of the deepest crisis that hit this country after the NATO members, grossly violating the UN Security Council resolution, bombed Libya in 2011 and actually broke this state for the sake of their selfish, narrow-minded goal to change Muammar Gaddafi’s regime. And since then, in fact, Libya has been left alone. Terrorists go through Libya to the south; weapons are smuggled, drugs and other nasty things also go to the south, while illegal migrants rush north to Europe, so we are all disintegrating the results of the adventure that NATO launched in 2011. We will try, however, we need to help Libya”, – Lavrov said during a lecture for MGIMO students in a video conference format.
After the overthrow and assassination of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya virtually ceased to function as a single state. Dual power reigns in the country now. The parliament elected by the people sits in the east, and in the west, in the capital Tripoli, the Government of National Accord, formed with the support of the UN and the European Union, rules. The authorities of the eastern part of the country operate independently of Tripoli and cooperate with the army of Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
In Berlin on January 19, an international conference on Libya was held with the participation of Russia, the USA, Turkey, Egypt and several other countries, as well as the EU and the UN. The main outcome of the conference was an appeal by its participants to a ceasefire in Libya and an obligation to refrain from interfering in the conflict, observing the embargo on the supply of arms to the parties. In addition, participants in the meeting proposed the establishment of a ceasefire monitoring committee.