Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline: N/A
Date: 21 October 2006
MOSCOW_Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said fighting that has raged
in Iraq has made it pointless to provide economic assistance to the country.
"We are concerned about the situation in Iraq. It has been developing in an
increasingly negative way," Lavrov said Friday in an interview with the
Kuwaiti news agency KUNA posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's Web site
on Saturday.
He said Moscow "fully trusts" the Iraqi government and backs Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's national reconciliation efforts, but added that a
volatile security situation means aid to the nation would be wasted.
"Of course, Iraq needs social-economic assistance, but providing such
assistance in conditions of the total lack of security would be, first of
all, risky from a purely technological viewpoint, and, secondly, could
result in useless waste of money," Lavrov said. "In the past they have
earmarked funds and built facilities only to see them destroyed."
Russia, a consistent critic of the U.S.-led military campaign in Iraq, has
no military forces in the country. Russian President Vladimir Putin has
pledged to hunt down killers of four Russian diplomats, who were abducted
and executed in Iraq in June, and the Russian spy agency promised a US$10
million reward for information leading to their capture.
Byline: N/A
Date: 21 October 2006
MOSCOW_Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said fighting that has raged
in Iraq has made it pointless to provide economic assistance to the country.
"We are concerned about the situation in Iraq. It has been developing in an
increasingly negative way," Lavrov said Friday in an interview with the
Kuwaiti news agency KUNA posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's Web site
on Saturday.
He said Moscow "fully trusts" the Iraqi government and backs Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's national reconciliation efforts, but added that a
volatile security situation means aid to the nation would be wasted.
"Of course, Iraq needs social-economic assistance, but providing such
assistance in conditions of the total lack of security would be, first of
all, risky from a purely technological viewpoint, and, secondly, could
result in useless waste of money," Lavrov said. "In the past they have
earmarked funds and built facilities only to see them destroyed."
Russia, a consistent critic of the U.S.-led military campaign in Iraq, has
no military forces in the country. Russian President Vladimir Putin has
pledged to hunt down killers of four Russian diplomats, who were abducted
and executed in Iraq in June, and the Russian spy agency promised a US$10
million reward for information leading to their capture.