MOSCOW, August 31 (Itar-Tass) — Libyan rebels will be unable to form a stable government after the resolution of the conflict in Jamahiriya, Russian permanent representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday.
“Rebels themselves are members of different tribes with different political interests,” Rogozin told Russia Today.
“Till now only one purpose – to neutralise [Muammar] al-Gaddafi’s regime, which was hateful for various reasons, unites rebels,” he stressed.
“There are different countries that uphold rebels. This is not only the Western coalition but also other countries of the region. That is why it is necessary to take into account the fact that as soon as the common enemy is prostrated, rebels will inevitably face internal contractions,” the Russian permanent representative to NATO added.
Earlier, State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Konstantin Kosachev said NATO forces, the legitimacy of whose operation was doubtful from the very start, must leave Libya upon the end of hostilities.
“NATO actions in Libya had much exceeded the UN mandate in the recent months. Further presence of NATO forces in Libya would be no less questionable,” he said. “The NATO operation must stop with the end of clashes.”
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said several days ago that NATO saw its special role in Libya after the end of the Muammar Gaddafi regime. He claimed that the UN mandate enabled NATO to fulfill another two missions in the protection of civilian population, i.e. the rendering of armed support to humanitarian assistance to Libyans and the training of the Libyan army and police, the same as it had been done in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rasmussen said that NATO was capable of both missions.
Meanwhile, a representative of the Libyan National Transitional Council said earlier that Libyan authorities would not allow the deployment of a NATO base on the national territory upon the fall of the Gaddafi regime.