The second attempt to block a meeting of the UN Security Council (SC) on the issue of the 25th anniversary of NATO aggression in Yugoslavia by French representatives is accompanied by far-fetched pretexts. This was stated on March 28 by First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Dmitry Polyansky at a meeting of the Security Council.
“Today we are witnessing for the second time how the French delegation, under far-fetched pretexts and manipulating the procedure, is trying to block a meeting requested by Russia on the topic of the 25th anniversary of NATO aggression against Yugoslavia,” he said.
France's permanent representative to the UN, Nicolas de Rivière, responded that the topic was “irrelevant”, adding that UN meetings are not the appropriate place to discuss historical issues.
Earlier, on March 27, Russia again requested a meeting of the UN Security Council on NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. Polyansky stressed that the Russian delegation has no illusions about the behavior of the Western bloc. The Deputy Permanent Representative believes that representatives of Western countries will again challenge the holding of the meeting through voting and manipulate the procedures.
On March 25, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized France’s incorrect behavior in the case of NATO aggression, official representative of the department Maria Zakharova stated. The text of her address indicates that, under the influence of the French side, the Japanese presidency held a vote on the agenda, which led to the impossibility of discussing this topic. The department called this disrespect for the acting chairman of the Serbian government, head of the Serbian Foreign Ministry Ivica Dacic, who had already arrived in New York to participate in the meeting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 24 called the bombing of Yugoslavia by the North Atlantic Alliance in 1999 a huge tragedy. Putin noted that the West “without any resolution of the UN Security Council directly began military operations, a war, in fact, in the very center of Europe.”
On March 22, Izvestia correspondent Valentin Trushnin showed the consequences of NATO bombing in Serbia 25 years later.
The North Atlantic Alliance conducted a military operation in Yugoslavia from March 24 to June 10, 1999. It had the official status of a humanitarian intervention. NATO bombing led to the death of over 2.5 thousand people, including 87 children. The country suffered enormous damage, and the consequences of the use of depleted uranium are still being recorded by doctors.
#Polyansky #accused #France #disrupting #Security #Council #meeting #Yugoslavia