NATO urges Russia to withdraw troops from Crimea
Iran Press TV
Sun Mar 2, 2014 10:18PM GMT
The chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has called on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine's Crimea region.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen made the remarks on Sunday after members of the 28-nation alliance held an eight-hour meeting in Brussels.
In a statement issued on the same day, Rasmussen also urged the deployment of international observers to Ukraine amid mounting tension in the Eastern European country.
The statement also called for an inclusive political process in Ukraine.
NATO also censured what it called Russia's "military escalation" in Ukraine's Crimean region, alleging that any move by Russia to deploy armed forces in Ukraine would be a "breach of international law."
On Saturday, the upper house of the Russian parliament unanimously approved President Vladimir Putin's request to deploy troops into the Crimea.
The development came after Crimea's regional Prime Minister Sergey Aksenov asked Putin to help restore peace and calm in the region.
Ukraine has been the scene of anti-government protests since November last year, when ousted President Viktor Yanukovych refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia.
The Ukrainian parliament removed Yanukovych from power last week and named Oleksandr Turchynov, the legislature's speaker, as the country's interim president.
MOL/MAM/AS
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