By Ola Galal, Massoud A. Derhally and Bill Varner
(Updates 11th paragraph with Obama telephone call to British, French leaders. For more news on Mideast turmoil, see EXTRA and MET.)
March 18 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations Security Council authorized a no-fly zone and other military action to prevent Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi from making good on his threat to conquer the rebel capital, Benghazi, and “destroy” the opposition movement.
The council provided the legal basis for the U.S., France, the U.K. and several Arab nations to intervene in the Libyan conflict to avert a feared bloodbath if Qaddafi defeats the opposition. The embattled Libyan dictator said yesterday he would show “no mercy” to “traitors” who do not surrender.
The UN vote drew cheers and celebratory gunfire from hundreds of anti-Qaddafi Libyans gathered in Benghazi.
“We have very little time left,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told the Security Council before the vote. “Every day, every hour we see the closing of the clamp on the civilian population. We should not arrive too late.”
The latest violence in Libya, as well as turmoil in Bahrain and elsewhere in the region, rattled oil markets. Crude oil climbed the most in three weeks on concern that will spread, reducing shipments.
After the vote, Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaaim said at a press conference in Tripoli the regime is ready to negotiate a cease-fire, according to Agence France Presse.
‘Decisive Hour’
Earlier in the day, Libyan jets dropped bombs on the outskirts of Benghazi. Qaddafi went on state television to say the “decisive hour” had arrived for his forces to take Benghazi, a coastal city of a million.
His ability to quickly make good on the threat was unclear, since fighting continued around Ajdabiya, about 100 miles south of Benghazi, where Qaddafi’s forces are facing rebel holdouts.
The U.S. and other nations have said little publicly about what military action they are prepared to take. Senators received a classified briefing yesterday on the administration’s plans.
A spokesman for President Barack Obama, Tommy Vietor, said the president would make no immediate public comments. Enforcing the UN resolution would involve the U.S. militarily in a third Muslim country after declaring that Qaddafi needed to give up power after four decades.
Obama, Sarkozy, Cameron
Obama called French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. Prime Minister David Cameron last night to discuss implementing the UN resolution, the White House said in a statement. The three agreed to work closely with Arab and other international partners on enforcing the terms of the resolution and called for an end to the violence against civilians in Libya, the White House said.
The Obama administration had been wary of a no-fly zone, saying that action would involve bombing Libyan air defense sites to safeguard American and allied warplanes and would not be enough to stop Qaddafi’s offensive. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday in Tunisia that military options being considered include deploying drones and arming rebel.
U.S. senators who have been advocating military action -- Republican John McCain of Arizona, Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts, and Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman -- applauded the administration’s success in winning support for a broad UN military authorization and called the action “an important step on behalf of the people of Libya.”
‘Turn the Tide’
“With Qaddafi’s forces moving toward Benghazi, we must immediately work with our friends in the Arab League and in NATO to enforce this resolution and turn the tide before it is too late,” they said in a joint statement.
A spokesman for Sarkozy, Franck Louvrier, denied in a text message a BBC report that French and British air forces were about to strike Libya.
U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain is ready to enforce the UN resolution, indicating the U.K. air force will be among those taking action.
Libya’s deputy UN ambassador, Ibrahim Dabbashi, said five Arab nations have agreed to contribute to a no-fly zone endorsed by the Arab League and authorized by the UN resolution.
“It is a clear message to the Libyan people that they are not alone, that the international community is with them,” said Dabbashi, who has broken with the Qaddafi regime. “It is also a clear message to Colonel Qaddafi and those who support him that there is no place for dictatorship, there is no place for killing the people, there is no place for atrocities. The people of Benghazi will feel safe from this time on.”
Risk to Civilians
Civilians in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, are at “grave risk,” Human Rights Watch said shortly before the UN vote. “Libyan security forces’ possible capture of Benghazi heightens concerns of more abuses as we’ve seen elsewhere in Libya, including killings and disappearances,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in an e-mailed statement.
The threat to civilians was the basis of the Security Council action, which passed by a vote of 10-0, with five abstentions, including Russia and China. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said his country abstained because the vote may lead to “large-scale military intervention.”
The UN resolution authorizes “all necessary measures” to protect civilians, while “excluding a foreign occupation force on any part of Libyan territory.” The measure, which also calls for an immediate cease-fire, permits the implementation of a no- fly zone, sought by rebel leaders, and bars Libyan aircraft flights to other nations. It allows for inspections of shipments headed to Libya, to enforce an arms embargo, and imposes a global freeze on assets.
‘Strong Message’
The resolution “should send a strong message” to Qaddafi and member of his regime to stop the violence and meet the “legitimate demands” of Libyans, Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, told reporters after the vote.
Germany will not be participating in military action, said Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle,
Qaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, scoffed March 16 as the Security Council debated the resolution, saying to EuroNews television, ‘It’s too late.’’
The airstrikes around Benghazi haven’t targeted the city itself, and rebel fighters downed one of the planes carrying them out, said Essam Gheriani, a spokesman for the rebels, by phone yesterday.
Libyan government forces continued to fight pockets of rebel resistance in Ajdabiya, where al-Arabiya television reported at least 30 dead bodies in the local hospital, and attacked the blockaded city of Misrata, the last rebel holdout in western Libya. At last 81 people have been killed and 615 wounded there since the uprising began a month ago, Reda Almountasser, a resident, said by phone.
Oil Exports
Libya’s crude oil exports may be halted for “many months” because of damage to facilities and international sanctions, the International Energy Agency said March 15. Crude oil for April delivery rose $3.44 to settle at $101.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the biggest gain since Feb. 23. The contract is up 22 percent from a year ago.
In Benghazi, Aisha Ftaytah, a spokeswoman for the Interim Transitional National Council, said the rebels still control 40 percent of Libya, though Tobruk is the only major oil hub they hold. The rebels have some planes in Benghazi that are being targeted by government troops, she said, adding that people in the city are concerned that by the time there is international action against Qaddafi, “there will be nothing left.”
In his EuroNews interview, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi said rebels should flee to Egypt while they can. “We have no intention of killing them or taking revenge on these traitors who have betrayed our people,” he said. “We say to them that they can run into Egypt quite safely because Libya no longer belongs to them. A lot of them have already left for Egypt.”
--With assistance from Nayla Razzouk and Zainab Fattah in Dubai, Leon Mangasarian in Berlin, Mark Shenk in New York, Gonzalo Vina in Paris, John Simpson in Toronto, Nicole Gaouette in Tunis and Nicholas Johnston in Washington. Editors: Terry Atlas, Steven Komarow
To contact the reporters on this story: Ola Galal in Cairo at ogalal@bloomberg.net; Massoud A. Derhally in London at mderhally@bloomberg.net; Bill Varner in New York at wvarner@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
0 Comment:
Post a Comment