Arab League, African Union and Latin Nations Criticize Western Attack on Libya

Arab League Splits from West Over Libya Bombing

March 20, 2011

Sky News - The Arab League has criticised the military strikes on Libya, a week after urging the United Nations to slap a no-fly zone on the oil-rich North African state. The Arab League chief said that Arabs did not want military strikes by Western powers that hit civilians when the League called for a no-fly zone over Libya.

Reuters said Secretary-General Amr Moussa was calling for an emergency league meeting to discuss the situation in the Arab world and particularly Libya under UN resolution 1973.

"What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians," Mr Moussa told Egypt's official state news agency.

The volte-face by the Arab League raises uncertainty about the unity of Western and Muslim leaders and highlights varying interpretations of tactics and strategy. Only Qatar has openly supported the Western-led campaign and their planes are now moving into position near Libya.

Sky sources confirm the United Arab Emirates is offering help but does not seek to publicise it.

The Arab League had suffered wide criticism for not being more vocal in support of the action it had appealed for.

Foreign Secretary William Hague had earlier told Sky that the coalition was receiving "very strong support" from Arab states for the coalition.

"It is not about regime change," Mr Hague said.

Earlier in the day Air Vice-Marshal Osborn said commanders were "entirely comfortable" with the British missile strikes undertaken so far that targeted Colonel Gaddafi's integrated air defence network.

Military analysts were this morning still compiling battle damage assessments after the attacks from air and sea as part of coalition action against the Libyan dictator.

US joint chiefs of staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen also said "significant progress" had been made and the no-fly zone is effectively in place. But Admiral Mullen had caused concern when he admitted that the offensive military action might end in stalemate. He said it was possible Col Gaddafi could still cling to power even if the no-fly zone enforcement was successful.

Military planners have so far said the operation was proceeding well.

A defence source told Sky News:

"We're happy with the way the operation went.

"But we need to take stock of where we are, and give Gaddafi a little time to think about his future."

Tension has appeared in domestic corridors of power as well as between the West and Arab worlds.

The resolution rules out the use of occupying forces, but it allows the international community to use all necessary means to protect civilians.

Some have interpreted that to mean ground troops could be used.

Evidence that allied air strikes have hit tanks and troops on the ground suggests that it is being interpreted as licence to exceed the bounds of what would normally constitute a no-fly zone, in effect establishing a 'no-conflict zone'. However, the MoD has ruled out any use of ground forces to enforce the resolution.

The military action launched on Saturday is the first British involvement in what planners have codenamed Operation Ellamy, as part of a multinational effort.

At least 112 coalition missiles targeted military assets near the capital, the city of Misratah and other strategic locations, in an operation that began on Saturday.

French planes fired the first shots, hitting regime tanks and armoured vehicles near Benghazi.

In response to the strikes, Col Gaddafi told Libyan state TV that the attacks "amounted to terrorism" and that Libyans would be armed to go out and fight in his name. Accusing the no-fly zone coalition of colonialism, he said:

"The Libyan men and women have been given weapons and bombs... You will not advance, you will not step on this land."

Royal Air Force Tornado jets deployed and fired Stormshadow missiles and a submerged Trafalgar class submarine on station fired Tomahawk land attack missiles. At least two Royal Navy surface vessels joined a 25-ship multinational force operating in the Mediterranean, blockading Libya, and capable of naval gunfire support.

The action was supported by surveillance aircraft and the Tornados were refuelled en route from Britain by air tankers. The Tornado jets flew 3,000-mile round trips from RAF Marham in Norfolk - making them the longest range bombing flights conducted by the air force since the Falklands conflict in 1982. It is now understood that the Tornado aircraft will be repositioned in southern Italy for future missions over Libya, joining six Danish F-16 fighters being readied for sorties.

Prime Minister David Cameron will chair a Cobra crisis meeting today at which military chiefs will provide the assessment of the military impact against Libyan air defences.

After British forces launched operations Mr David Cameron said:

"They are part of an international coalition that has come together to enforce the will of the United Nations and to support the Libyan people.

"So what we are doing is necessary, it is legal, and it is right."

It is the biggest Western-led military intervention in the Arab world since the controversial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Military planners hope that critically damaging Libyan air defences will help make easier enforcement of the no-fly zone.

Three US B-2 stealth aircraft also dropped 40 precision bombs on at least one regime airfield.

Some believe that Gaddafi forces may not be as loyal as previously thought, and that precision strikes on Libyan troops may be enough to persuade some to down their weapons. Yet it's not expected that the Libyan leader will choose this moment to step down - the question is how many more sleepless nights he can tolerate.

US President Barack Obama told the New York Times that the military operation will last "days, not weeks." But MoD top brass have spoken of a longer timeline. Major General John Lorimer said that Britain "will see this through for as long as it takes to get done." And Air Vice-Marshal Osborn added that Britain's new Typhoon fighter may be sent on sorties "over the next few weeks." Shortly after his comments, 10 of the state-of-the-art jets were later seen flying from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire.

The military action comes after the UN-backed enforcement of the Libyan no-fly zone was approved last week. Other allied nations enforcing the UN Security Council resolution against the Gaddafi regime include the US, France, Italy and Canada.

Former head of the army General Lord Richard Dannatt told Sky News that more regional states should be involved. Lord Dannatt said:

"Critically, what we need to see quite soon, is Arab and Muslim nations stepping up to the plate and also visibly taking part in missions - it is their part of the world, after all."

Persian power Iran warned Libyans not to trust Western powers launching air strikes, saying their aim was to gain neo-colonial control over the oil-rich nation.

However US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier warned Iran to stop meddling in other Arab states in the region.

Sky's Lisa Holland, who is in Tripoli under the supervision of Libyan authorities, gained access to Col Gaddafi's compound in the heart of Tripoli when hostilities began.

After British forces went into action Mr Cameron said:

"I believe we should all be confident that what we are doing is in a just cause and in our nation's interest."

Russia has called on Britain, France and the US to stop air strikes against what it said were non-military targets in Libya, saying the attacks had caused civilian casualties.

Chavez and Gadhafi’s Other Latin America Allies Condemn Military Intervention in Libya

March 19, 2011

Associated Press — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez condemned military strikes against Libya on Saturday, accusing the United States and its European allies of attacking the country to seize its oil.

Chavez’s ally and mentor Fidel Castro raised similar concerns in a column written before the first strikes, while the leftist leaders of Bolivia and Nicaragua also accused world powers of intervening with an eye to the North African country’s oil.

Chavez, who has long-standing ties to Moammar Gadhafi, has urged mediation and called it “disgusting” that the U.S., France and other countries are taking military action.

“More death, more war. They are the masters of war,” Chavez said. “What irresponsibility. And behind that is the hand of the United States and its European allies.”

“They want to seize Libya’s oil. The lives of Libya’s people don’t matter to them at all,” Chavez said. “It is deplorable that once again the warmongering policy of the Yankee empire and its allies is being imposed, and it is deplorable that the United Nations lends itself to supporting war, infringing on its fundamental principles instead of urgently forming a commission to go to Libya.”

Operating under authorization of the U.N. Security Council, French fighter jets fired the first shots at Gadhafi’s troops Saturday, and U.S. and British warships launched a missile attack on Libya’s air defenses.

“We know what’s going to happen: bombs, bombs, war, more suffering for the people, more death,” Chavez said in a televised speech in Caracas.

The socialist leader has been joined by Latin American allies including Castro and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in strongly opposing U.S. and NATO military involvement in Libya, and in suggesting that reports of atrocities by Gadhafi’s troops were overblown or unproven.

In a column published in Cuba’s state media Saturday, Castro asked why the U.N. Security Council exists, and said NATO wields such a colossal military force that it “serves only to show the waste and chaos generated by capitalism.”

Speaking in Bolivia, President Evo Morales condemned the military intervention and said the strategy of some powerful countries has been to “invent a problem, and the problem is wanting to take control of oil.”

Ortega, meanwhile, echoed allegations that Western nations are after Libya’s oil and said they are “putting out fire with gasoline.”

The Nicaraguan leader accused the United Nations and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of being “an instrument of those powers.”

Chavez criticized President Barack Obama, saying he won the Nobel Peace Prize but is pursuing another war in the same mold as Iraq and Afghanistan. He also mocked French and other European leaders, saying “they still feel like owners of the world, empires of this world.”

Chavez said the freezing of Libyan accounts in U.S. and European banks — an amount he said he believes is nearly $200 billion — is effectively “a robbery, it’s looting, taking advantage of Libya’s internal conflict.”

The military strikes against Libya came after the U.N. Security Council authorized a no-fly zone and are aimed at supporting an uprising by rebels trying to topple Gadhafi after more than four decades in power.

“What is that called? Intervention in another country’s internal affairs,” Chavez said. “We demand ... a true cease-fire.”

African Union Demands 'Immediate' Halt to Libya Attacks

March 20, 2011

AFP - The African Union's panel on Libya Sunday called for an "immediate stop" to all attacks after the United States, France and Britain launched military action against Moamer Kadhafi's forces.

After a more than four-hour meeting in the Mauritanian capital, the body also asked Libyan authorities to ensure "humanitarian aid to those in need," as well as the "protection of foreigners, including African expatriates living in Libya."

It underscored the need for "necessary political reforms to eliminate the causes of the present crisis" but at the same time called for "restraint" from the international community to avoid "serious humanitarian consequences."

The panel also announced a meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on March 25, along with representatives from the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Conference, the European Union and the United Nations to "put in place a mechanism for consultation and concerted action" to resolve the Libyan crisis.

The AU committee on Libya is composed of five African heads of state. But the Nouakchott meeting was only attended by the presidents of Mauritania, Mali and Congo. South Africa and Uganda were represented by ministers. The committee said it had been unable to get international permission to visit Tripoli on Sunday but did not elaborate.

Libyan generosity and Moamer Kadhafi's role in the creation of the African Union could explain the continental cautious stand, experts said.

The AU was born in the 1999 Sirte Declaration, named after a summit hosted by Kadhafi in his hometown on the Libyan coast.

The declaration said its authors felt inspired by Kadhafi's "vision for a strong and united Africa."

"The AU as an organisation has benefited significantly from Kadhafi's wealth," said Fred Golooba Mutebi of the Institute of Social Research at Kampala's Makerere University.

The pan-African body has taken a firmer stance on three west African crises: most recently Ivory Coast and previously Guinea and Niger.

Handouts aside, Libya has invested billions of dollars in sub-Saharan Africa. It has interests in more than two dozen African countries, while its petroleum refining and distribution unit Oil Libya has interests in at least as many. Libyan telecommunications unit LAP Green is present in five countries in the region and expanding rapidly.