By IANS,
Moscow : Western forces should cease violating the UN Security Council resolution on Libya and maintain the embargo on arms supplies to the conflict zone, said Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian permanent envoy to NATO Monday.
“More and more European states are declaring support for the Libyan rebels. We request to stop violating the UN Security Council resolution, especially its clause imposing an embargo on arms supplies to the conflict zone,” Rogozin said.
“No one has ever succeeded in extinguishing a fire with kerosene.”
“Getting more and more entangled in the Libyan crisis, certain Western states have started speculating about the possibility of a ground operation, which would probably be introduced as an operation to secure humanitarian convoys,” he said.
The statement has come in the wake of recent rumours that France was pushing European Union countries to the ground campaign in Libya by sending an EU humanitarian-military mission to the troubled North African state.
However, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has ruled out any military role for the EU humanitarian mission.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier warned that weapons supplies and ground operations in Libya, regardless of reasons or causes, would be a breach of the Security Council’s resolution.
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya March 17, paving the way for a military operation against embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi which began two days later.
The command of the operation was shifted from a US-led international coalition to NATO in late March.