MOSCOW. May 24 (Interfax) - NATO troops are operating in Libya solely under the United Nations mandate and not on their own initiative, Abdel Rahman Shalgam, a representative of the Libyan opposition National Transitional Council, said.
"This is not a NATO decision, but the decision by the UN, its Security Council. NATO did not come to Libya under a NATO decision. It was the UN decision aimed at protecting the civilian population," he told journalists in Moscow on Monday after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The true goals of the NATO coalition operation in Libya raise serious doubts, the Russian Foreign Ministry said last Friday, demanding that the UN SC regularly inform about all coalition actions.
"There are also serious doubts about the true political goals of the military campaign conducted by the coalition in Libya," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.
"Despite the reassurances of commitment to the goals of well-known resolutions on Libya by the international community, NATO is, in fact, as follows in particular from statements made by the U.S. Department of State, pursuing the goal of changing the regime in Libya, for which the alliance was authorized by no one," Lukashevich said.