MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/: The state of affairs in Libya has not transformed following the Berlin conference on Libya, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Italian La Stampa newspaper published on Monday.
According to him, it is not entirely right to say that Libyan developments "are getting out of hand again" following the Berlin conference. "It would be more correct to say that the situation has not changed much," the Russian minister said. "Overall, there’s nothing surprising there. Differences between the key parties to the Libyan conflict have gone so far that it is impossible to resolve them at a single meeting, even such a representative one as the Berlin forum."
In this regard, Lavrov recalled that meetings on Libya held in Paris, Palermo and Abu Dhabi "also did not the situation forward." "Therefore, the main task before the international community today is to win clear-cut agreement of Libyans with the final document of the Berlin conference," he stressed.
At the same time, the Russian minister pointed out positive changes in the Libyan settlement. "These trends should be fostered, all settlement directions should be advanced simultaneously," he noted.
Commenting on the European Union’s aspirations to preserve Libya’s territorial integrity, the minister conceded that he does not fully understand this wording. "Libyans themselves should act as guarantors on this issue, while the international community’s task is to facilitate their creating of the necessary conditions with understanding that universal guarantees can only be provided by the UN Security Council," he emphasized, adding that the Russian side will work in this very direction.
