The Russian Parliament has called for an immediate halt to foreign armed strikes in Libya and warned the Western states that their “indiscriminate” use of force could spur more countries to acquire nuclear arms.
The State Duma lower house of the Russian Parliament on Wednesday adopted in a 350-35 vote a strongly worded statement that voiced “concern over the scale and form of the use of military force against Libya” and urged the Parliaments of the Western states involved in the military operation to help bring about “an immediate end to armed action that is destroying Libya's civil infrastructure and most importantly is causing new civilian casualties.”
Russia abstained the U.N. Security Council vote earlier this month on Resolution 1973 allowing foreign military intervention in Libya and has since accused the coalition forces of overstepping the U.N. mandate for establishing of a no-fly zone over Libya to protect the civilian population.
Russian parliamentarians said the Western states are using the U.N. resolution “to pursue other goals” than saving civilian lives.
“The indiscriminate use of military force against Libya may push back prospects for normalisation in that country, lead to more civilian deaths and prompt other states to speed up their programmes for developing weapons of mass destruction,” the State Duma statement said.
“Libya in 2003 renounced its ambition to acquire nuclear and other mass destruction weapons,” said parliamentarian Andrei Kokoshin. “Experts say that if Libya had nuclear arms and delivery means today, nobody would have attacked it.”
