West Began Dismantling International Law When NATO Decided To Bomb Yugoslavia - Lavrov

Western countries, including the United States, began dismantling the international legal framework when NATO decided in 1999 to launch airstrikes in Yugoslavia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd March, 2019) Western countries, including the United States, began dismantling the international legal framework when NATO decided in 1999 to launch airstrikes in Yugoslavia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

At the conference in Rambouillet, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, which are permanent members of the UN Security Council, were strongly in favor of using force against Yugoslavia and were supported by Canada and the Netherlands, the foreign minister said. Russia and China spoke out against this, and so did Argentina and Brazil.

"This is when notions began getting mixed up and the Americans decided to destroy the international legal framework and replace it with some rules that the order should be based on. The Western countries are now increasingly referring to a 'rules-based order' instead of calling on everyone to adhere to international laws," Lavrov said in an interview for a documentary at a Russian broadcaster NTV.

The minister remarked that the international laws came about as the result of talks where consensus was reached, whereas "rules are being invented by the Westerners themselves."

"That is when it started, 20 years ago," the Russian foreign minister said.

NATO's 1999 strikes were carried out in Yugoslavia, made up of Serbia and Montenegro at the time. Albanian separatists from the Kosovo Liberation Army were engaged in an armed conflict with the Serbian security forces. NATO's bombing campaign, which took place between March 24 and June 10 in 1999, was not approved by the UN Security Council.

According to the Serbia authorities, about 2,500 people died, while some 12,500 were injured.