Tripoli, April . . .[restrict]4: Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has hit out at the National Transitional Council saying it is “difficult to negotiate with”.
Speaking today while on a visit to the Azerbaijani capital Baku, Lavrov said that “the opposition had from the start been under the roof of the transition council, but now that Qaddafi is toppled, they are not particularly easy to talk with,”
Lavrov, who has a reputation for outspokenness, said Russia would like to see more effort from the Libyan authorities in building a “normal state.”
He also expressed concerns about weapons in Libya going astray claiming that Russia was working with the UN to find a “way out of this situation.”
Yesterday, while in Baku, Lavrov continued to push the Russian view that the NATO bombing of Libya last year was illegal and excessive. “I really wouldn’t want the Libyan scenario to repeat anywhere else. This scenario is an example of crying abuse of the Security Council’s mandate,” he told journalists following a meeting with Azerbaijan’s foreign minister.
Lavrov’s comments come just days after a senior Russian arms official has claimed his country was in the process of resuming relations with Libya over arms contracts, worth $4 billion that were struck with the Qaddafi regime.
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