Thursday, April 14, 2011

NATO fails to reach consensus on Libya

The international community can't agree on how to approach the Libyan conflict as rebels there call for more airstrikes.
NATO pledge "all necessary resources" as the military alliance struggled to find a consensus on whether to arm Libya's rebels in their fight against troops loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
But the pledge, made by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's secretary general, came after a day marked by a day of disputes on how to resolve the Libyan conflict.
The division, evident at the time of a March 29 conference on Libya in London, was still manifest at the first meeting in Doha on Wednesday of the contact group on Libya, which includes Western and Arab states, the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Arab League.
Italy, a former close ally of Gaddafi, who has ruled for 41 years, said the UN Security Council resolution under which international forces have bombed Gaddafis troops since March 19 permits providing defensive arms to the rebels.
Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, said "either we make it possible for these people to defend themselves, or we withdraw from our obligation to support defending the population of Libya."
Frattini said that Resolution 1973 "does not prohibit supplying arms ... for self-defence" to the rebels, who are entrenched in eastern Libya, but have  been unable to push westward toward Gaddafi-controlled Tripoli.
"It's very important to broaden the discussion about this point," he said.
But Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister whose country was the first to bomb Gaddafi's forces, came down against arming the rebels, who have been calling for more airstrikes as Gaddafi's troops blasted Misurata with rockets, killing a reported 23.
William Hague, British foreign secretary, said Britain, which was also among  the first countries to carry out air strikes in Libya, had been providing  non-lethal equipment to the rebels, and would continue to do so.
And Belgium expressed opposition to arming the rebels, while Germany insisted that there could be  "no military solution".
The final statement from the meeting said that "participants in the contact group agreed to continue to provide support to the opposition, including material support".
The diplomatic moves come amid rising friction within the alliance over a NATO air campaign in Libya that has so far failed to change the balance of power on the ground.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, who arrived in Berlin for the meetings on Thursday and Friday, issued a statement denouncing what she said were continuing attacks on civilians by Gaddafi's forces.
"In recent days, we have received disturbing reports of renewed atrocities conducted by Gaddafi's forces," she said.
Multi-alliance approach


The NATO meeting was part of a three-pronged push - at the UN, as well as the meetings in Doha and Cairo - by the international community to find a solution to end the fighting in Libya and halt the growing political impasse.
But even as NATO and its allies scrambled to formulate a unified front on Libya, five big emerging powers expressed misgivings about the air strikes against Gaddafi targets and urged an end to the fighting.
The air campaign was one of the issues on the table when the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) met in southern China for a one- day summit on Thursday.


Meanwhile, there were reports of four blasts in Tripoli on Thursday, which Libyan state television claimed were airstrikes. It also reported civilian casualties which have not yet been verified.
Khaled Kaim, the Libyan deputy foreign minister, charged that elements of the Lebanese group Hezbollah were fighting alongside the rebels in the east of his country.
Hezbollah, however, denied sending fighters to aid rebels in Misurata.
"Hezbollah denies this accusation and maintains that all such talk is  unfounded," said a brief statement released by the group on Thursday.
Gadaffi also said Qatar had sent military trainers to Libya and was supplying the rebels with French-made Milan anti-tank missiles.
Trust fund for rebels
Mahmud Jibril, who handles foreign policy for the rebels' Transitional National Council, was due in Washington to meet with senior state and defence department officials and congressional leaders. But his trip was cancelled and the talks postponed, US officials said.
In Doha, the international contact group on Libya decided, after a day-long gathering, to set up a "temporary financial mechanism" to aid the rebels seeking to oust Gaddafi.
It "affirmed that Gaddafi's regime has lost all legitimacy and he should leave and allow the Libyan people to decide their future."
While there was a consensus that Gaddafi must go, differences emerged over arming the rebels.
The meeting's final statement said "participants in the contact group agreed to continue to provide support to the opposition, including material support."
Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, the Qatari prime minister, told reporters the statement refers to "humanitarian means, and also means of defence. And that means that the Libyan people should get the means that they need to defend themselves."
But he seemed to acknowledge that this view was not universally held. He said "people gathered here have different interpretations," while reiterating that "the first thing that the Libyan people need is self-defence".
However, Mahmud Shammam, a spokesman for the rebels, indicated that the arms issue does not require consensus.
"If needed, we will request (arms) from countries on a bilateral basis," he said.
curtsy-Al Jazeera

No comments:

Post a Comment