Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia in explanation of vote on UNSC draft resolution on renewal of the Libyan Sanctions Regime

Mr. Chairman,

We could not support the draft resolution submitted by the United Kingdom and Germany, which extended the mandate of the Libyan sanctions regime, because our principled and duly justified observations have not been taken into account.

The co-sponsors included in the resolution provisions regarding the illegal import of oil products into Libya. We would like to emphasize that the negative impact of the import of oil products on the Libyan economy is not so obvious. Now, because of the decline of its own refining capacities, Libya imports about three quarters of the total volume of oil products. At the same time, due to the efforts of armed groups, a huge part of the oil products goes to the domestic "black market" and abroad. We cannot ignore the needs of Libyans living in the eastern part of the country, to whom supplies of oil products simply do not reach.

In that regard, we would like to reiterate that Libya's natural wealth should be used for the benefit of its population and should not serve vested interests of third States. All issues related to control over oil infrastructure and export operations should be resolved by Libyans themselves.

Thank you.