Russia’s Lavrov doubts that NATO saved lives in Libya
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is skeptical of NATO’s claims that it saved thousands of lives in Libya: "Members of the international community, first of all our Western partners, have chosen the path of supporting one of the sides in the civil war – probably the party that represented the Libyan people’s legitimate aspirations, but this ...
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is skeptical of NATO's claims that it saved thousands of lives in Libya:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is skeptical of NATO’s claims that it saved thousands of lives in Libya:
"Members of the international community, first of all our Western partners, have chosen the path of supporting one of the sides in the civil war – probably the party that represented the Libyan people’s legitimate aspirations, but this still increased the number of casualties among the civilianpopulation," Lavrov said, cites Interfax. Russia’s top diplomat was speaking at a media conference in Moscow after talks with his Djiboutian counterpart.
Lavrov pointed out that the UN resolutions on Libya called for measures that would protect civilians in the conflict-torn North African state, “but the result was slightly different, to say the least,” he added.
The minister stressed that Moscow does not accept “invocations” heard from the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels that NATO’s intervention saved “a countless number of lives.”
“This is wishful thinking,” Lavrov said.
Leave aside for the moment the bona fides of Lavrov–who just ordered Russia to veto a UN condemnation of Syria’s repression–as a judge of humanitarian affairs. I’m skeptical as well that the intervention saved lives in the aggregate, although it certainly altered which Libyans lost their lives and it obviously determined the outcome of the conflict. In retrospect, the intervention is on much stronger ground as a strategic, political, and pro-democracy intervention than as a purely humanitarian one.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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