http://ca.news.yahoo.com/putin-likens-u-n-libya-resolution-crusade-calls-20110321-052402-752.html
Putin likens U.N. Libya resolution to crusade calls
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Monday likened the U.N. Security Council resolution supporting military action in Libya to medieval calls for crusades.
Putin, in the first major remarks from a Russian leader since a coalition of Western countries began air strikes in Libya, said that Muammar Gaddafi's government fell short of democracy but added that did not justify military intervention.
"The resolution is defective and flawed," Putin told workers at a Russian ballistic missile factory. "It allows everything. It resembles medieval calls for crusades."
Putin said that interference in other countries' internal affairs has become a trend in U.S. foreign policy and that the events in Libya indicated that Russia should strengthen its own defense capabilities.
Russia, a veto-wielding permanent Security Council member, abstained from the vote Thursday in which the council authorized a no-fly zone over Libya and "all necessary measures" to protect civilians against Gaddafi's forces.
http://www.emirates247.com/news/wor...-us-military-intervention-2011-03-21-1.371090
Putin condemns 'trend' of US military intervention
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday lashed out at the "steady trend" of US military intervention around the world, accusing Washington of acting without conscience or logic.
"I am concerned about the ease with which the decision to use force was taken," Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying in reference to the current international campaign in Libya.
Noting that the United States had already involved itself in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq, Putin added: "Now it's Libya's turn.
"And all of this under the guise of protecting peaceful civilians. Where is the logic, where is the conscience? There is neither one nor the other," Putin said.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Monday slammed the UN resolution allowing military action on Libya as a "medieval call to crusade" and hit out at Washington for its readiness to resort to force.
In one of his most virulent diatribes against the West in years, Russia's de facto number one said there was no "logic" or "conscience" to the military action.
"The resolution by the Security Council, of course, is defective and flawed," Russian news agencies quoted Putin as telling workers on a visit to a missile factory.
"To me, it resembles some sort of medieval call to crusade when someone would appeal to someone to go to a certain place and free someone else."
Putin's comments marked a sharp hardening of Moscow's rhetoric against the Western military action on Libya after Russia abstained from the UN resolution last week, refusing to use its veto which would have blocked its passage.
Putin also said that the events in Libya showed that Russia had taken the right decision in strengthening its military capabilities, in possible reference to its massive new $650 billion rearmament plan.
"Today's events in Libya prove that we are doing everything right in terms of strengthening Russia's military capabilities," he was quoted as saying.
He also announced that Russia planned to double the production of strategic and tactical missile systems from 2013.
Putin's hardline comments also sit awkwardly with the reset in US-Russia ties championed by his successor in the Kremlin, President Dmitry Medvedev, which has seen a swift warming of relations over the last months.
Observers have long speculated that the US favours Medvedev over Putin. Some reports even suggested that US Vice President Joe Biden wanted to warn Putin against considering a return to the Kremlin in 2012 polls, on his visit to Russia this month.
Russia had initially backed international measures against the Kadhafi regime, signing on to UN Security Council sanctions that imposed an arms embargo against Libya and other sanctions against Kadhafi's family.
Some Russian defence officials had initially expressed concern about the sanctions, saying the UN arms export prohibition may cost the country some $4 billion in current and future contacts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...mpaign-in-libya/2011/03/20/AB1pSg1_story.html
Arab League condemns broad Western bombing campaign in Libya
CAIRO — The Arab League secretary general, Amr Moussa, deplored the broad scope of the U.S.-European bombing campaign in Libya and said Sunday that he would call a league meeting to reconsider Arab approval of the Western military intervention.
Moussa said the Arab League’s approval of a no-fly zone on March 12 was based on a desire to prevent Moammar Gaddafi’s air force from attacking civilians and was not designed to endorse the intense bombing and missile attacks — including on Tripoli, the capital, and on Libyan ground forces — whose images have filled Arab television screens for two days.
“What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone,” he said in a statement carried by the Middle East News Agency. “And what we want is the protection of civilians and not the shelling of more civilians.”
Moussa’s declaration suggested that some of the 22 Arab League members were taken aback by what they have seen and wanted to modify their approval lest they be perceived as accepting outright Western military intervention in Libya. Although the eccentric Gaddafi is widely looked down upon in the Arab world, the leaders and people of the Middle East traditionally have risen up in emotional protest at the first sign of Western intervention.
A shift away from the Arab League endorsement, even partial, would constitute a major setback to the U.S.-European campaign. Western leaders brandished the Arab League decision as a justification for their decision to move militarily and as a weapon in the debate to obtain a U.N. Security Council resolution two days before the bombing began.
As U.S. and European military operations entered their second day, however, most Arab governments maintained public silence, and the strongest expressions of opposition came from the greatest distance. Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Evo Morales of Bolivia and former Cuban president Fidel Castro condemned the intervention and suggested that Western powers were seeking to get their hands on Libya’s oil reserves rather than limit the bloodshed in the country.
Russia and China, which abstained from the voting on the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing military intervention, also expressed regret that Western powers had chosen to get involved despite their advice.
In the Middle East, the abiding power of popular distrust of Western intervention was evident despite the March 12 Arab League decision. It was not clear how many Arab governments shared the hesitations voiced by Moussa, who has said that he plans to run for president in Egypt this year. But despite Western efforts to enlist Arab military forces, only the Western-oriented Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar has announced that it would participate in the campaign.
