No-fly zone over Libya to top Arab League’s discussion
Arab foreign ministers were meeting in Egypt on Saturday to discuss a no-fly zone over Libya as Mummar Gaddafi’s regime showed growing confidence after retaking a strategic town near Tripoli following days of relentless shelling against protesters-turned-rebels.
Ahmed bin Helli, the Arab League’s undersecretary general, said a no-fly zone proposition was on the agenda for Saturday’s emergency meeting. Member states, however, were divided over how to deal with the Libyan crisis, signaling it would be a tough debate.
Gaddafi’s regime captured the strategic town of Zawiya and a key oil town in the east Friday as it fought to dislodge rebels who took refuge among towering storage containers of crude oil and gas in nearby facilities.
Zawiya’s main square, which had been a key center of resistance to the west of the capital, bore the scars of battle and the streets were lined with tanks as loyalists waving green flags rallied amid a heavy presence of uniformed pro-Gaddafi troops and snipers. There was talk of rebel bodies having been bulldozed away, and the dome and minaret of the nearby mosque were demolished.
With Gaddafi’s men also on the march against rebels in the east, Western nations appeared in disarray over how to stop the bloodshed.
Arab League chief
Arab League chief Amr Mussa called for a no-fly zone over Libya and said he wants the group to play a role in imposing it, as the bloc prepared to hold key talks on the crisis Saturday.
"I do not know how nor who will impose this zone, that remains to be seen. The Arab League can also play a role, that is what I will recommend," Mussa said in an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel.
"I am talking about a humanitarian action. It consists, with a no-fly zone, of supporting the Libyan people in their fight for freedom against a regime that is more and more disdainful."
In terms of which organization might be in charge of the zone, Mussa said: "That depends on the decision of the (U.N.) Security Council. The United Nations, the Arab League, the African Union, the Europeans — everyone should participate."
Mussa said Gaddafi was showing a lack of the "awareness that presidents (Zine El Abidine) Ben Ali in Tunisia and (Egypt’s) Hosni Mubarak demonstrated by resigning."
He said he believed in a "domino effect" in revolts in the Arab world and said he expected other autocratic regimes to fall.
Meanwhile, Libya’s rebel national council urged the Arab League Saturday to recognise it as representing the country instead of Gaddafi’s regime and to back a no-fly zone to curb attacks on its fighters.
Arab inaction on the Libyan crisis could lead to "unwanted foreign intervention" and fighting among Libyans, the foreign minister of Oman said on Saturday.
"If the Arab League does not take responsibility to prevent a downward spiral, that could lead to internal fighting or unwanted foreign intervention," Foreign Minister Youssef bin Alawi bin Abdullah said in his opening remarks to an Arab League meeting.
Gaddafi men excluded
Top officials in the pan-Arab organization said two envoys from Tripoli would be excluded from the meeting, held as Gaddafi’s forces step up their attacks on rebels.
"No Libyans will attend the meeting based on the decision of the Arab League on March 2 to suspend Libya from meetings," Hisham Youssef, chief of staff of Arab League secretary general Amr Mussa, told AFP.
Foreign ministers and representatives of the 22-member bloc would discuss "the developments of the situation in Libya to find ways to end the bloodshed in Libya," Youssef said.
The foreign minister of European Union chair Hungary, Janos Martonyi, said Friday that "the expectation is that they will support a no-fly zone under some conditions."
"The best thing I think would be that a concerted action would be planned and implemented with the countries of the Arab League," he added.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief said Saturday that she would go to Cairo to meet with leaders of the Arab League to discuss the situation in Libya.
Catherine Ashton said she would fly to Cairo on Sunday and discuss a "collaborative approach" with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa on Libya and the rest of the region and would also meet with Egypt’s prime minister-designate, Essam Sharaf, and with Nabil Elaraby, the nominee for foreign minister.
Ashton said it was necessary to evaluate how effective economic sanctions imposed on Muammer Gaddafi’s regime had been so far and that she was "keeping all options moving forward" regarding any additional measures.
"We have started … prudent, careful planning for all options," Ashton told reporters, without specifying whether military actions were being considered. "What we’re seeking to achieve is a joint approach – it recognizes we need to look at all the available options."
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle welcomed the EU’s "very cautious" stance on possible military intervention.
"We do not want to be drawn into a war in north Africa – we should have learned from the events in and surrounding Iraq," Westerwelle said. "It is very important that the impression doesn’t arise that this is a conflict of the West against the Arab world or a Christian crusade against people of Muslim faith."
EU agrees on some steps
EU leaders agreed at an emergency summit Friday to talk to Gaddafi’s opponents and protect Libyan civilians "by all necessary means" while stopping short of outright military threat.
They demanded that Gaddafi "relinquish power immediately" and deemed the opposition council based in the eastern city of Benghazi "a political interlocutor."
However there was no mention in the statement of calls from Britain and France for a no-fly zone over Libya. And strident demands from French President Nicolas Sarkozy for "targeted action" against Gaddafi went unheeded.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose country has far-reaching historical and economic ties with Tripoli, predicted Gaddafi would never give in for fear of facing international justice.
A U.N. mission was also due in Libya on Saturday to evaluate the country’s humanitarian needs, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaaim said in Tripoli.
He said the mission would tour hospitals to check on food and medicine supplies, adding that six months’ supplies of both were in stock.
Kaaim made no mention of the arrival of former Jordanian foreign minister Abdul Ilah Khatib, who is being dispatched by United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon to raise international concerns about Gaddafi’s deadly crackdown on protests.
Khatib, due in Tripoli early next week, will put across to the regime "in no uncertain terms the concerns of the United Nations and the international community," Ban told reporters in New York.
The envoy will have a political role in trying to end the conflict but also to try to open up humanitarian access to the Libyan population, Ban said.
Khatib will be accompanied by senior U.N. humanitarian officials, U.N. political advisers and aides to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
US concerned
U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday the world was "tightening the noose" on Gaddafi, but admitted he was "concerned" the Libyan strongman could thwart revolutionary fighters battling to oust him.
Obama announced he would appoint an envoy to Libyan opposition forces as part of a bid to "change the balance" of the military situation in Libya, and warned the world had an obligation to avoid a Rwanda-style massacre.
The president also defended his efforts to date to oust Gaddafi, amid criticism that he has been too slow or not offered sufficient leadership, adding he was gauging support for a no-fly zone with regional powers.
The European Union also stressed the need for "a clear legal basis and support from the region", reflecting divisions over the advisability of military intervention.
The legal basis sought by EU states would be a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing action.
The EU statement also called for an urgent summit to discuss the crisis between the EU, the Arab League and the African Union, which rejected military intervention in Libya at a meeting on Friday.
"We’re going to have to continue to apply pressure," Obama said, as the U.S. Treasury Department hit another nine Gaddafi associates with sanctions, including his wife Safia Farkash and his defense minister.
Libya’s former ambassador to the U.N., Abdel Rahman Shalgam, said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would meet Mahmoud Jibril, the Libyan opposition national council’s foreign affairs chief, in Paris on Monday.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the opposition national council, called Thursday for both a no-fly zone and a sea embargo, as well as weapons and medical aid for the cities threatened by Gaddafi’s troops.
In Tripoli, Kaaim said Libya had suspended diplomatic relations with France after Paris recognized the opposition’s self-proclaimed national council a day earlier.