LAKE SELIGER, Tver region, August 1 (Itar-Tass) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he saw no prospects for an armed settlement in Libya.
“We would like very much the countries that have piled up a large amount of weapons to use to them as a deterrence, not indiscriminately because the use of force, armed force, never leads to a lasting settlement – political processes are needed,” Putin said at a meeting with the participants in the Seliger-2011 youth forum on Monday, August 1.
He admitted that he did not understand how one should correctly interpret NATO’s statement that the alliance is ready to go to the end in the Libyan conflict.
“In fact, they said that they would fight on to victory, but this is not quite clear because the U.N. mandate does not allow anyone to fight against someone else till victory over him. It only allows one to protect civilians from air strikes by one of the parties,” Putin said.
“It’s not clear whom they are going to fight to victory,” he added.
Another problem is that the situation in Iraq remains unsettled, and it is even worse in Afghanistan where a whole wedding party of more than 100 people was killed by an air strike.
“I think that a war till victory in Libya is something that has yet to be understood. Judging from what is happening in other countries where such operations are carried out, the ending is always dull, and it’s not quite clear where all this will lead to,” Putin said.