NATO struggles to resolve dispute over fight in Libya
Source: Agencies |
April 15, 2011, Friday
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NATO nations struggled yesterday to overcome deep differences over the military campaign in Libya, with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton calling for unity in the face of French and British calls for other countries to help more with attacks on Moammar Gadhafi's ground forces.
Alliance members agreed that Gadhafi must leave power but insisted the military mission remain focused on its declared goals of enforcing an arms embargo, protecting civilians and forcing the withdrawal of Gadhafi forces from cities they have entered.
The limitations of NATO's aims have been tested by the Libyan rebels' inability to make progress against Gadhafi's stronger and better organized forces, who have camouflaging themselves and hiding in populated areas to avoid Western airstrikes now in their third week.
As a result, Britain and France have been calling for more strikes by their NATO allies, particularly the US, with its sophisticated surveillance and weapons systems.
The US says it sees no need to change what has become a supporting role in the campaign, and many other NATO nations have rules preventing them from striking Gadhafi's forces except in self-defense.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance's foreign ministers had endorsed a statement calling for Gadhafi to leave power, and remain committed to completing the mission there despite the recent divisions.
Rasmussen said NATO needed more aircraft to attack Gadhafi's forces in populated areas.
"To avoid civilian casualties we need very sophisticated equipment, so we need a few more precision fighter ground-attack aircraft for air-to-ground missions," he said. "I don't have specific pledges or promises from this meeting, but I heard indications that gave me hope."
Clinton did not say whether the US would send more ground attack craft, but she appealed to the other NATO foreign ministers for unity over the Libyan campaign.
"As our mission continues, maintaining our resolve and unity only grows more important," she said. "Gadhafi is testing our determination."
NATO's 28 members are "sharing the same goal, which is to see the end of the Gadhafi regime in Libya," Clinton said. "We must also intensify our political, diplomatic and economic mission to pressure and isolate Gadhafi and bring about his departure."
But she said that regime change was outside NATO's military mandate.
France, which pushed NATO to launch the Libyan campaign, is now pushing other countries at the meeting to work "on more robust, more efficient, more rapid actions," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in Paris.
The Pentagon noted that Americans have flown 35 percent of all air missions over the last 10 days.
Rasmussen said the alliance is keeping up "a high operational tempo." One proposal from Italy - Libya's former colonial ruler - calls for the Western powers to provide defensive weapons to rebels.
Clinton didn't comment on that plan but said the world must "deepen our engagement with and increase our support for" the Libyan opposition.
Asked whether France believes Libyan rebels should be supplied with arms, France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said "France is not in this frame of mind."
Alliance members agreed that Gadhafi must leave power but insisted the military mission remain focused on its declared goals of enforcing an arms embargo, protecting civilians and forcing the withdrawal of Gadhafi forces from cities they have entered.
The limitations of NATO's aims have been tested by the Libyan rebels' inability to make progress against Gadhafi's stronger and better organized forces, who have camouflaging themselves and hiding in populated areas to avoid Western airstrikes now in their third week.
As a result, Britain and France have been calling for more strikes by their NATO allies, particularly the US, with its sophisticated surveillance and weapons systems.
The US says it sees no need to change what has become a supporting role in the campaign, and many other NATO nations have rules preventing them from striking Gadhafi's forces except in self-defense.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance's foreign ministers had endorsed a statement calling for Gadhafi to leave power, and remain committed to completing the mission there despite the recent divisions.
Rasmussen said NATO needed more aircraft to attack Gadhafi's forces in populated areas.
"To avoid civilian casualties we need very sophisticated equipment, so we need a few more precision fighter ground-attack aircraft for air-to-ground missions," he said. "I don't have specific pledges or promises from this meeting, but I heard indications that gave me hope."
Clinton did not say whether the US would send more ground attack craft, but she appealed to the other NATO foreign ministers for unity over the Libyan campaign.
"As our mission continues, maintaining our resolve and unity only grows more important," she said. "Gadhafi is testing our determination."
NATO's 28 members are "sharing the same goal, which is to see the end of the Gadhafi regime in Libya," Clinton said. "We must also intensify our political, diplomatic and economic mission to pressure and isolate Gadhafi and bring about his departure."
But she said that regime change was outside NATO's military mandate.
France, which pushed NATO to launch the Libyan campaign, is now pushing other countries at the meeting to work "on more robust, more efficient, more rapid actions," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in Paris.
The Pentagon noted that Americans have flown 35 percent of all air missions over the last 10 days.
Rasmussen said the alliance is keeping up "a high operational tempo." One proposal from Italy - Libya's former colonial ruler - calls for the Western powers to provide defensive weapons to rebels.
Clinton didn't comment on that plan but said the world must "deepen our engagement with and increase our support for" the Libyan opposition.
Asked whether France believes Libyan rebels should be supplied with arms, France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said "France is not in this frame of mind."
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