Russia refuses to recognize Libya rebels as legitimate government, clashing with West

Russia on Monday United States and other countries that have recognized the Libyan rebels’ National Transitional Council as a legitimate government, saying they were taking sides in the civil war.

“We do not share this position for one simple reason −this again means that those who declare this recognition stand wholly on the side of one political power in a civil war,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

“This again means that those who support this decision support a policy of isolation -- in this case, isolation of the forces represented in Tripoli,” Mr. Lavrow said.

“We traditionally reject isolation as a method for resolving political problems in any conflict.”

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the recognition of the rebels on Friday, when she was in Turkey for a meeting of an international contact group on Libya.

The major diplomatic step could possibly unblock billions of dollars in frozen Libyan funds.

Additional cash would be crucial to the rebels’ faltering campaign to end the 41-year rule of Muammar Qaddafi, who has so far resisted a nearly four-month NATO bombing campaign.

Mr. Lavrov also dismissed Western media speculation that Russia is now ready to offer political asylum to Colonel Qaddafi and his closest family.

“This answer has been asked many time before, and the answer is no,” Mr. Lavrov said.

Russia abstained from a vote on a UN Security Council resolution in March that opened the way for air strikes on Qaddafi regime targets in Libya and has since criticized the scale and intent of the NATO-led Western campaign.

A Kremlin envoy has since met with top Libyan rebels in their stronghold city of Benghazi and conducted negotiations in Tripoli over the terms of Colonel Qaddafi’s potential exile.

Those mediation efforts have thus far failed.

Russia, along with China, has taken a softer line toward Colonel Qaddafi. Both were invited to the Istanbul contact group meeting but decided not to become involved.

(Sara Ghasemilee, a senior editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: [email protected])