BELGRADE, Serbia — Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that Western attempts to topple Moammar Gadhafi were a violation of a UN resolution on Libya that only authorized the use of force to protect civilians.
Given such a Western position, the Libyan opposition was refusing to negotiate a cease-fire with the regime in Tripoli, Lavrov said. "It is crucial to establish a cease-fire," he said on a visit to Belgrade.
Lavrov said the opposition in Yemen was apparently also hoping for Western help, similar to the NATO operation in Libya, to topple President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
"Probably using the same logic, the opposition in Yemen is refusing the possibility to sit at the negotiating table, hoping for that kind of help from abroad," Lavrov said.
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