In my top 5 fav. memes.
Italy warns Russia against escalation of Ukraine conflict
06H 10M AGO
Moscow, Feb 1 (IANS/AKI) The conflict in eastern Ukraine must not escalate and security must be ensured for Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe observers in the region, Italy's Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said here on Thursday.On the final day of his first trip to the region as OSCE chairman, Alfano told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov: "The Ukraine crisis is a priority for Italy"."Further escalation of the conflict must be prevented and the personal safety of OSCE observers must be guaranteed."Italy intends to nurture inclusive dialogue during its chairmanship of OSCE…whose mission is to keep open an exchange of views between east and west," he added.Lavrov said Russia welcomed Italy's "highly constructive" plans for its chairmanship of OSCE this year."From your statements, it is clear that you are trying to tackle problems through inclusive dialogue, not confrontation - I esteem this position," he told Alfano.During his visit to Ukraine earlier this week, Alfano unveiled a two million euro humanitarian aid package for eastern Ukraine's population.The aid package includes 500,000 euros for food rations and basic winter necessities delivered by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and a 500,000 euro loan to the UN children's charity UNICEF to raise awareness of the dangers of landmines.A further million euros of the humanitarian aid is earmarked for health and civilian protection provided by the Red Cross as part of the package.Strengthening the shaky ceasefire and helping boost political dialogue are the main objectives in eastern Ukraine, Alfano said in Brussels on Monday ahead of his visit.Ending the four-year conflict in and around Ukraine is a priority, Alfano told an OSCE meeting in Vienna on January 11.Since April 2014, more than 10,300 people have been killed by fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists who control parts of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.Cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords - September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed at resolving the conflict - have failed to hold.
Russia: OSCE chairman applauds Moscow's role in resolving world conflicts
Published by Ruptly on Thu, 01 Feb 2018 17:23:06 GMT
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a joint press conference with his Italian counterpart Angelino Alfano, in Moscow on Thursday.
SOT, Angelino Alfano, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs (Italian): “The OSCE [Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe] played the leading role in preventing the intensification of many conflicts, as you could see. We intend to support all existing negotiation formats, to promote any conditions directed to solve the protracted conflicts, conflicts with postponed decisions. We consider that the OSCE should contribute such a major player as Russia to the involvement in this process because Moscow is a subject that is very close to us.”
SOT, Angelino Alfano, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs (Italian): “We have a clear goal to stop confrontation on the Donbass territory. It is a problem that has concerned us seriously for a long time. It is a destabilising factor, not only for the region. We see that the situation continues to be, let me say, fractional, and this should be avoided.”
SOT, Sergei Lavrov, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs (Russian): “Just recently, the new radical structure was made there [in Ukraine], which was called ‘the National Corpus’ or the ‘National troop’. The structure is openly Neo-nazism. And this tendency, when monopoly on force is blurred and not restored, when radicals with Neo-nazism emphasis run the show and dispense justice, continue provocations, in particular on the line of contact with proclaimed republics, very concerns us. And we hope that our European colleagues, first of all France and Germany as participants of Normandy format, will pay attention to it.”
SOT, Sergei Lavrov, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs (Russian): “We believe that we will jointly seek the ways of resolving crisis in Libya, in particular with taking into account a lot of those problems had arisen after the North Atlantic Alliance changed the regime through the bloody actions. Regarding the current stage, the UN Special Representative Mr. Salam suggests right ideas, ideas of national reconciliation, national impoverishment, as Alfano said, and we, as do most countries, support these ideas. I see an analogy with the Congress held in Sochi. Although, now the Congress appealed to the UN to take those results achieved in Sochi, first of all with regard to the launching of the Constitutional committee, the Libyan conference could be longer. It depends on which agreements will be reached. The main point is to desist from attempts, which have been observed at the early stages of settlement, to bet just on the one internal Libyan force.”
Someone let an AJ and things went wild!
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