William Hague says diplomats
must leave UK within 48 hours,
saying storming of British embassy in Iran
had backing of regime
Wednesday 30 November 2011
Guardian.co.uk
14.54 GMT
Julian Borger and Saeed Kamali Dehghan
This article was published on guardian.co.uk
at 14.54 GMT on Wednesday 30
November 2011.
It was last modified at 15.23 GMT
on Wednesday 30 November 2011.
It was first published at 14.23 GMT
on Wednesday 30 November 2011.
The foreign secretary, William Hague, has ordered the
expulsion of Iranian diplomats from the UK and announced that the UK is closing
its embassy in Tehran, saying that the storming of the mission on Tuesday had
the backing of the regime.
Hague said Iranian diplomats would have to leave Britain within 48 hours, and
that all British embassy staff in Tehran had now left Iran.
He said that the move would not mean the severance of all ties, as the two
countries could continue to have a dialogue at international meetings, as the US
has done since the seizure and closure of its embassy in 1979, but the move
marks a new low in relations, which have been growing increasingly strained.
The foreign secretary said it was not possible to maintain an embassy in the
current circumstances, adding that the estimated 200 protesters who invaded the
embassy and the British diplomatic compound yesterday were "student basij
militia". The basiji operate as a youth wing of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, one
of the most powerful institutions in the country.
Hague said it would be "fanciful" to think that the embassy invasion could have
taken place without "without some degree of regime consent".
He added: "If any country makes it impossible for us to operate on their soil
they cannot expect to have a functioning embassy here."
Iranian diplomats in London refused to comment on the announcement.
Foreign Office sources said the foreign secretary had made his statement minutes
after he received confirmation that the 26 British embassy staff had taken off
from Tehran, heading for Britain.
The announcement had been delayed until then for fear "there would be some nutso
backlash against our people", the source said.
The fleeing diplomats left the Iranian capital with whatever possessions they
could salvage from their homes after the British residential compound in
northern Tehran had been completely ransacked, an official said.
"The residential accommodation had been comprehensively trashed. The mob had
gone through houses and apartments, wrecking them, nicking things. It was like a
gang of feral street kids had been given license to do as much damage as
possible," he said.
The crowd had also set fire to the first floor of the embassy, the official
said, causing extensive damage. The only staff left at the embassy and the
residential compound will be local security staff, who will be asked to prevent
the buildings becoming "a playground for local youths".
In the next few days a decision will be made on which country's embassy could
act as a UK interests section. In previous low points in UK-Iran relations the
Swedes have played that role, but no decision has yet been made.
Hague will now go to Brussels for an EU foreign ministers' meeting looking for
support, and for other capitals to call in resident ambassadors to complain.
The message, as one official put it, would be: "If you let your thugs destroy
our embassy and assault or scare our staff, you cannot expect to maintain normal
civilised relations with the rest of the world."
Earlier on Wednesday, Norway temporarily closed its embassy in Tehran, citing
security concerns, and Sweden summoned Iran's ambassador to Stockholm to its
foreign ministry. "Iran has a duty to protect diplomatic premises, and
authorities there should have intervened immediately," said a Swedish foreign
ministry spokesman.
The Scandinavian countries' reactions follow outspoken condemnation of the
attack from the US and France. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said:
"The United States condemns this attack in the strongest possible terms. It is
an affront not only to the British people but also the international community,"
she said.
In Iran the attack on the embassy has prompted mixed reactions even among the
supporters of the regime. The Iranian foreign ministry last night expressed
regret over the "unacceptable behaviour by [a] few demonstrators" and promised
an investigation.
But Ali Larijani, the country's powerful parliamentary speaker, told MPs on
Wednesday that the attack was the result of "several decades of
domination-seeking behaviour of Britain".
Larijani also criticised the UN security council for condemning Tuesday's
incident.
"The hasty move in the security council in condemning the students' action was
done to cover up previous crimes of Britain and the United States," the
semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Larijani as saying during an open session
at Iran's parliament.
In contrast , the Iranian foreign ministry said it was committed to protecting
diplomatic personnel and said a thorough investigation would be launched.
In Tehran the episode has been seen as the latest episode in an extraordinary
power struggle between the conservatives in parliament and the judiciary on one
side, and the government of the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on the other.
Pro-Ahmadinejad supporters have interpreted the recent events as an attempt to
hamper the government's efforts to reduce tensions with the international
community and undermine the government's foreign policy.
Iranian state agencies, meanwhile, tried to depict Tuesday's events as an
spontaneous protest by "university students" and attempted to distance the
establishment from the attack.
Cameron and Sarkozy in Tripoli to Meet New Libyan Leaders
September 15, 2011
The New York Times
By ROD NORDLAND, ALAN COWELL and RICK GLADSTONE
TRIPOLI, Libya — The leaders of Britain and France visited
Libya on Thursday in a triumphal but heavily guarded tour intended to boost the
country’s revolutionary leaders, whose forces were propelled to power with
NATO’s help last month by routing Col. Muammar Qaddafi and his military in the
most violent conflict of the Arab Spring uprisings.
Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France,
who convened an international meeting two weeks ago in Paris in support of the
new Libyan authorities, were the first world leaders to travel to the Libyan
capital in the post-Qaddafi era. They pledged to keep up the NATO bombing —
which their countries supervised — until the last of the recalcitrant Qaddafists
surrendered. They also promised to help track down the elusive Colonel Qaddafi,
and to provide political and economic aid to the new leaders seeking to fill the
void left by his four decades of absolute rule.
“This was your revolution, not our revolution,” Mr. Cameron said to the Libyans,
praising “incredibly brave” rebels for “removing the dreadful dictatorship of
Qaddafi.”
But with Colonel Qaddafi still at large, Mr. Cameron said, “this is not
finished, this is not done, this is not over.”
Both countries have interests in preserving potentially lucrative oil deals made
under the Qaddafi government, and intend to compete for the contracts as part of
the reconstruction and restoration of Libya's battered infrastructure.
For his part, Mr. Sarkozy called for Libyans to show forgiveness to their
internal adversaries and not resort to vengeance and score-settling as the
conflict winds down, echoing a theme expressed by the leaders of the
Transitional National Council, the interim government. He also said France
expected no favorable treatment in exchange for pressing the NATO campaign.
“What we did we did without a hidden agenda, but because we wanted to help
Libya,” he said.
The visit to Tripoli itself was held under heavy security and was diplomatically
awkward, at least, because Libya technically has no head of state. The leader of
the Transitional National Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, and the de-facto prime
minister, Mahmoud Jibril, appeared with Mr. Cameron and Mr. Sarkozy at a news
conference in Tripoli. But Mr. Jalil has not even officially moved himself to
Tripoli yet from the council’s base in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the
anti-Qaddafi revolt began in March.
While a growing number of Transitional National Council officials have come to
Tripoli, the bulk remain in Benghazi. Their official position is that the
government will not relocate here until they declare the conflict over — which
will not happen until Colonel Qaddafi and one of his fugitive sons, Seif
al-Islam el-Qaddafi, who had been considered his heir apparent and often acted
in Colonel Qaddafi’s behalf, are either captured or confirmed out of the
country.
The Cameron-Sarkozy visit, which also included a stop in Benghazi, where both
were greeted warmly by residents, came as new but unconfirmed reports emerged
that anti-Qaddafi fighters had advanced into Surt, Colonel Qaddafi’s tribal
hometown and one of the redoubts of support for him. But Abdulrahman Busin, a
military spokesman for the Transitional National Council, said the fighters were
still “on the outskirts” of Surt, where they have been for more than a week.
Mr. Cameron and Mr. Sarkozy said they would press for the release of billions of
dollars worth of Libyan assets frozen under United Nations sanctions against
Colonel Qaddafi. Mr. Cameron also said “we will help you find Qaddafi and bring
him to justice,” but did not explain how Britain would do that. Technically,
NATO surveillance planes could be deployed to detect movements by or signals
from Colonel Qaddafi.
British newspapers have reported that British Special Forces are on the ground
in Libya, though the military does not generally comment on reports of such
activity.
Referring to the former Libyan leader, Mr. Cameron declared, “It’s time for him
to give himself up” and face justice.
France was the first country to recognize the rebels and took credit for
initiating airstrikes that halted a loyalist column closing in on Benghazi. Mr.
Sarkozy and Mr. Cameron have since said those initial strikes prevented the
thousands of deaths that would have occurred if pro-Qaddafi forces had entered
the city.
Mr. Cameron’s visit was announced here only after he landed — a measure of
continued concerns about security and with pro-Qaddafi forces still holding out
in several towns in other parts of Libya.
The visit came three days after Mr. Abdel-Jalil, the insurgent leader, issued a
passionate call for national reconciliation in the heart of Tripoli.
He spoke in the newly renamed Martyrs’ Square, which had been called Green
Square when Colonel Qaddafi used it to harangue his followers and excoriate his
enemies. It was also where his security forces shot protesters six months ago
and set off the rebellion.
Since the uprising, Tripoli has played host to only a handful of international
visitors, including President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, who spoke to Colonel
Qaddafi as part of an unsuccessful attempt by the African Union bid to mediate a
cease-fire and peace negotiations.
Rod Nordland reported from Tripoli, Alan Cowell from London
Obama and Cameron must break this addiction to war
Both Britain and America are fuelling Muslim anger
by failing to rein in an aggressive military interventionist
strategy
Tuesday 24 May 2011
20.30 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Simon Jenkins
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 20.30 BST on Tuesday 24 May
2011.
A version appeared on p33 of the Main section section of the Guardian on
Wednesday 25 May 2011.
It was last modified at 00.05 BST on Wednesday 25 May
2011.
It's the war, stupid. At the time of his election in 2009,
everything about Barack Obama endeared him to British opinion. Events since have
honoured that enthusiasm, with the president retaining an approval rating in the
region of 70%. Obama is admired for his vigorous steps to fend off recession. He
is admired for confronting the health industry lobbyists. He speaks the language
of conciliation abroad. He has seemed a voice of reason and sobriety, after
eight years under George Bush when America seemed alien and painfully at odds
with the world.
This has been spoiled by continuing western military aggression in and on Muslim
states. All Obama promised, in cleansing the west's reputation, in restoring
disengagement and reversing Washington's image as an overbearing bully, has been
vitiated by surges, drone missiles and the kneejerk attack on Libya. That the
top item at a summit between Britain and America should be how to bomb a north
African state that threatens neither of them is absurd. To many in Britain,
American foreign policy under Obama has come to seem Bush-lite, while Britain's
seems Blair-lite.
This is more than sad. In Obama and David Cameron the west has two of its most
capable and convincing leaders in a quarter century. Both are thoughtful men,
albeit inexperienced in foreign affairs, with relatively secure home bases.
These leaders should be ideally cast as beacons of sane judgment in parts of the
world that chronically need it.
So why are both trapped in the morass of the Muslim arc, sitting targets for the
jibes of Islamist fundamentalists? For the first time since the fall of the
Berlin Wall, nations forming a significant regional grouping have seemed on the
brink of freeing themselves from oppressive regimes. They are doing so not
through outside intervention or military coup but through the delicate process
of insurrection. They have mobilised their capitals and provincial cities, their
professions, their military, their urban middle class and those eternal agents
of change, students. They have demanded great sacrifice and loyalty from their
peoples to the cause of freedom. But their cause has derived its peculiar
potency through being "bottom-up".
Such regime change may be aided by outside support, from the media, overseas
contacts and an expatriate diaspora. It is not aided by grandstanding in
Washington and London, by megaphone diplomacy and by blundering military
intervention. There is no evidence that it is helped by aerial bombardment,
which strengthens rather than weakens the resistance of the bombed. Nor is
insurrection aided by tipping money into dissident factions, which become
corrupted and dependent on such support, as appears to have happened in Iran.
Such intervention played no part in the decay of communism. It toppled regimes
in Afghanistan and Iraq by main force, but at vast cost and with so much damage
to the physical and political fabric that stable reconstruction has been
impossible. Military intervention played no part in regime change in Tunisia and
Egypt, while its deployment in Libya seems to have been counter-productive.
There was desperation in Monday night's display of air power over Tripoli, as
the RAF celebrated Obama's arrival in Britain with a reprise of Bush's 2003
"shock and awe" in Baghdad. This is not responsible foreign policy, but rather
an archaic brutalism.
That the Anglo-American special relationship, coyly renamed "essential", should
take the form of military aggression is a missed opportunity. Yesterday's
article by Obama and Cameron in the Times was a museum piece of platitude and
cliche, interspersed with such whoppers as the claim that, in responding to the
Arab spring, "it is not our place to dictate the pace and scope of this change".
Why then are they trying to dictate it in Libya?
Obama's private distaste for the legacy of Bush is clear. He is trying to move
the American war machine out of Iraq and hopes that the "surge" in Afghanistan
can in time cover a retreat there as well. This makes it the more disappointing
that he cannot rein in the military machine now entrenching America's presence
across the Muslim world.
Recent revelations in the New York Times by the widow of the late American
envoy, Richard Holbrooke, indicate deep scepticism among diplomats in
Afghanistan and Pakistan towards Obama's continued belligerence, and towards his
reliance on assassination and drone attacks. Holbrooke depicts an unsure Obama
in awe of his generals and reluctant to hear warnings that he faces another
Vietnam. There seems little hope that the president might redirect his attention
at negotiation, let alone accept that "a stable Afghanistan is not essential: a
stable Pakistan is".
Most western democracies are struggling to retrieve their economies from the
credit crunch. Only America and, to a lesser extent, Britain still regard it as
their manifest, and costly, destiny to dictate the manner in which a selection
of world states rule their people. This "neoconservative" ambition might not be
so ignoble were it implemented effectively, were it deputed to soft-power
agencies in education, health, international exchange and the promotion of
trade. Such methods were being tried, until recently, in both Libya and Syria.
That they did not work out in the short term did not make them wrong.
What is surely exhausted is the policy that Britain and America currently share,
of bringing about regime change by military aggression. Generals can promise
politicians glory, even if they seldom deliver it. But they are bulls in the
interventionist china shop.
Obama and Cameron have let themselves become trapped in a lethal military
embrace, one that has failed to deliver peace in Iraq or security in
Afghanistan. It has destabilised Pakistan and spread al-Qaida's influence. It
has killed hundreds of thousands of people to no one's obvious benefit, and cost
billions of dollars that would have been better deployed on peace and
reconstruction. Today, London and Washington are fortress cities through which
their statesmen must travel like frightened rabbits, like Obama during his
London visit.
This was the legacy of Bush and Blair and it is the most barren in recent
history. Yet it holds those successors in thrall. Neither has shown a capacity
to disengage from the drums and trumpets of warin favour of a more subtle and
more productive diplomacy. Until they do, any hope that the west's leadership
might gain traction in the Muslim world is futile.
LONDON | Tue May 3, 2011
12:40pm EDT
Reuters
By Adrian Croft
LONDON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden must have
had a support network in Pakistan, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on
Tuesday, promising to continue to cooperate with the Pakistanis to fight
extremism.
The disclosure bin Laden had holed up in a luxury compound in the military
garrison town of Abbottabad, possibly for five to six years, before he was
killed in a U.S. raid has prompted many U.S. lawmakers to demand a review of
U.S. aid to Pakistan.
Cameron said "the fact that bin Laden was living in a large house in a populated
area suggests that he must have had a support network in Pakistan."
"We don't currently know the extent of that network, so it is right that we ask
searching questions about it. And we will," he told Britain's parliament.
However, he said it was in Britain's national interest to recognize that Britain
and Pakistan shared the same struggle against terrorism.
"That's why we will continue to work with our Pakistani counterparts on
intelligence gathering, tracing plots and taking action to stop them. It's why
we will continue to honor our aid promises...," he said.
If progress is made on reforms, British aid to Pakistan will average 350 million
pounds ($580 million) a year over the next four years, the government says.
Britain needs Pakistani cooperation to help bring an end to the conflict in
Afghanistan, where it has some 9,500 troops.
Security cooperation with Pakistan is also important because British officials
say many terror plots affecting Britain in recent years originated in
mountainous areas of Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Cameron said Britain must be more vigilant than ever about security threats
following the killing of bin Laden.
Speaking to the BBC earlier, Cameron said bin Laden's death was unlikely to
speed up the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan. Britain aims to have
its combat troops out of Afghanistan by 2015.
"It is clearly a helpful development, I don't think it will necessarily change
any timetables, but we should use it as an opportunity to say to the Taliban,
now is the moment to separate yourself from al Qaeda, to give up violence, to
accept the basic tenets of the Afghan constitution," Cameron said.
(Additional reporting by Tim Castle; editing by Matthew Jones)
UK's Cameron urges vigilance after bin Laden death
LONDON | Mon May 2, 2011
5:19am EDT
Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron said
Monday the country would have to remain vigilant following the killing of al
Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan during an operation by U.S. forces.
British embassies have been asked to review their security to guard against
reprisals, but the formal level of security alert in Britain was left unchanged.
Cameron said in a televised statement from his official country residence
Chequers that bin Laden's death would be "welcomed right across our country."
"Of course, it does not mark the end of the threat we face from extremist
terror. Indeed, we will have to be particularly vigilant in the weeks ahead. But
it is, I believe, a massive step forward," he said.
Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said he expected heightened vigilance
at posts abroad for "some time to come."
"There may be parts of al Qaeda that will try to show that they are still in
business in the coming weeks as indeed some of them are," Hague told BBC Radio
4, during a trip to Cairo.
"I have already this morning asked our embassies to review their security."
Britain remains at its second-highest threat level of severe, meaning a militant
attack is considered highly likely.
Cameron said bin Laden, who was killed Sunday in a firefight with U.S. forces in
Pakistan, had been responsible for ordering the death of many British citizens
both at home and in other parts of the world.
In July 2005, four young British Islamists inspired by al Qaeda killed 52
commuters in suicide bomb attacks on the capital's transport network, and
security services have since foiled a number of plots.
"Above all today we should think of the victims of the poisonous extremism that
this man has been responsible for," Cameron said.
Bin Laden was shot during an attack on a compound in Abbottabed, north of
Islamabad, despite the general assumption being that he had been in the
mountainous region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Well, you end up in the business of world politics, terrorism, diplomacy, not
being surprised by anything in the end," Hague said, when asked about bin
Laden's whereabouts.
Bin Laden was "the world's most prominent terrorist leader" and his death in the
long-term was a "very positive development," the foreign secretary said.
But Britain's work in Afghanistan would continue to be "phenomenally difficult
and must go on," he added.
"So it would be wrong to draw the conclusion that suddenly we have solved a mass
of the world's problems."
Nevertheless, in an earlier statement Cameron said bin Laden's death would
"bring great relief to people across the world."
(Reporting by Avril Ormsby, Keith Weir and Adrian Croft; Editing
by Jon Boyle)
U.S.
and Britain aim to step up pressure on Gaddafi
TRIPOLI |
Tue Apr 26, 2011
3:09pm EDT
Reuters
By Lin Noueihed
TRIPOLI
(Reuters) - British and U.S. officials met on Tuesday to discuss how to step up
military pressure on Muammar Gaddafi, as the Libyan leader's army fought fierce
clashes with rebels in besieged Misrata.
More than a month of air strikes in a British and French-led NATO mission have
failed to dislodge Gaddafi or bring major gains for anti-government rebels who
hold much of east Libya, raising fears of a stalemate.
British Defense Secretary Liam Fox and Britain's Chief of the Defense Staff
General David Richards met U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike
Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington.
"The meeting will be about how we can put military pressure on the regime, and
that will include the tooth and the tail -- the people pulling the trigger to
kill civilians in Misrata and the people supplying them," a Ministry of Defense
source said.
Planes flattened a building in Gaddafi's compound on Monday in what his
officials called an assassination attempt. NATO denies trying to kill him.
After the Washington talks, Gates said the coalition was not targeting Gaddafi
specifically. Fox said there had been some "momentum" in the Libyan conflict in
recent days.
Western forces have run out of obvious targets to bomb, say analysts, without
achieving a clear military result.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the coalition of exceeding its
U.N. mandate to protect civilians.
"They said they didn't want to kill Gaddafi. Now some officials say, yes, we are
trying to kill Gaddafi," Putin said during a visit to Denmark. "Who permitted
this, was there any trial? Who took on the right to execute this man?
"Is there a lack of such crooked regimes in the world? What, are we going to
intervene in all these conflicts? Look at Africa, look at Somalia," he said.
"Are we going to bomb everywhere and conduct missile strikes?"
Libya's state news agency Jana said Tripoli had urged Russia to call an
emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, where Moscow has a permanent
seat.
As Libya has descended into civil war, counter-attacks by government forces have
underlined that Gaddafi has no intention of being overthrown like the leaders in
Egypt and Tunisia in the tide of unrest that has rolled across the Arab world.
The Libyan leader has vowed to fight to the death, blaming foreign powers and al
Qaeda for the insurgency.
The war has split the oil producer, Africa's fourth biggest, into a
government-held western area round the capital Tripoli and an eastern region
held by ragged but dedicated rebels.
FIERCE
FIGHTING IN MISRATA
Troops loyal to Gaddafi have extended their campaign to pound Berber towns in
the Western Mountains while battling rebels around the port of Misrata,
apparently with the aim of severing the western city from its one lifeline, the
sea.
"The troops launched an attack on an eastern area in a bid to control the port.
Fierce fighting is taking place there now," rebel spokesman Abdelsalam said by
phone from Misrata.
While world attention has been on Misrata and battles further east, fighting has
intensified in the Western Mountains.
Flanked by deserts, the mountain range stretches west for over 150 km (90 miles)
from south of Tripoli to Tunisia, and is inhabited by Berbers who are ethnically
distinct from most Libyans and long viewed with suspicion by the government.
Western Mountains towns joined the wider revolt against Gaddafi's rule in
February. They fear they are now paying the price while NATO efforts to whittle
down Gaddafi's forces from the air are concentrated on bigger population
centers.
A rebel spokesman, called Abdulrahman, told Reuters from the town of Zintan in
the Western Mountains: "It is quiet today but we fear shelling tonight.
Gaddafi's forces have bombarded us with Grad rockets for four days after
sunset."
"Four people were killed on Sunday including an elderly woman. Three people were
also wounded including a 11-year old girl," he said, adding:
"We have not heard any air strike by NATO forces for, I think, four days. They
attacked Gaddafi's soldiers in an area north of Zintan on Friday but the troops
are still there hiding in valleys."
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said 30,000 people had fled the Western Mountains
for Tunisia in the past three weeks, leaving the towns of Nalut and Wazin
virtually deserted.
"Only a few men could be seen there -- no women and children," the agency said
in a statement.
A British military spokesman, Major General John Lorimer, said British planes
were in action at the weekend around Misrata, Yafran, Ajdabiyah and Brega,
destroying tanks, rockets, missile launchers and armored personnel carriers.
Around Brega, the Libyan army reinforced its positions and dug in its long-range
missile batteries to conceal them from attacks by NATO planes, a rebel army
officer said on Tuesday.
Comments by rebel officer Abdul Salam Mohammed suggested Gaddafi now had clear
control of the fought-over town.
"There are 3,000 government troops in Brega and the next two towns. They have
been building up their presence," he told Reuters on the western edge of the
town of Ajdabiyah.
"We are controlling the area from here to al-Arbeen (halfway to Brega) but they
still have snipers in the area, hiding in the desert behind the sand dunes, and
they are active," he added.
The United States, the United Nations and European Union imposed sanctions on
the Libyan government and selected Libyan companies in late February and in
March.
But Libya imported gasoline from Italian refiner Saras in April, taking
advantage of a loophole in U.N. sanctions that permits purchases by companies
not on a U.N. list of banned entities, according to shipping sources.
LIBYAN
OIL TANKERS INTERCEPTED
Fox said on Monday Western forces were interdicting tankers carrying refined oil
products.
Britain's Foreign Minister William Hague told the cabinet on Tuesday to "prepare
for the long haul" in Libya. London hopes for international agreement soon on
setting up a fund to help the rebel national council in the east, he told
parliament.
The African Union has been holding separate talks with Libyan Foreign Minister
Abdelati Obeidi and rebel representatives in Addis Ababa to discuss a ceasefire
plan.
The rebels had earlier rebuffed an AU plan because it did not entail Gaddafi's
departure, while the United States, Britain and France say there can be no
political solution until the Libyan leader leaves power.
Ramtane Lamamra, AU's Commissioner for Peace and Security, accused the West of
failing to support the Ethiopian-based bloc's own peace proposal. "Attempts have
been made to marginalize an African solution to the crisis," he said.
Obeidi said Tripoli wanted a special AU meeting "to identify the ways that
enable our continent to mobilize capabilities to face the external forces which
aggress against us."
(Additional
reporting by Guy Desmond and Maher Nazeh in Tripoli, Alexander Dziadosz in
Benghazi and Sami Aboudi in Cairo, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Tim Castle and
Mohammed Abbas in London; writing by Andrew Roche; editing by Myra
MacDonald/Maria Golovnina)
Obama,
Cameron discuss tightening pressure on Gaddafi
WASHINGTON
| Wed Apr 20, 2011
9:45pm EDT
Reuters
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron Wednesday
discussed the need to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi, the White House said.
The two leaders agreed that U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding that the
Libyan government cease violence against civilians must be fully implemented.
"In addition to increasing military pressure and protecting civilians through
the coalition operation that NATO is leading, the leaders discussed the
importance of increasing diplomatic and economic pressure on the Gaddafi regime
to cease attacks on civilians and comply with U.N. Security Council
resolutions," a White House statement said.
The White House said earlier that Obama still opposes sending U.S. ground troops
to Libya, but he supports a French and British move to dispatch military
advisers to help rebels fighting Gaddafi.
"The president obviously is aware of this decision and supports it, and hopes
and believes it will help the opposition," White House spokesman Jay Carney told
reporters traveling with Obama to California. "But it does not at all change the
president's policy on no 'boots on the ground' for American troops," Carney
said.
France will send up to 10 military advisers to Libya while Britain said it could
send up to a dozen officers to help the opposition improve organization and
communications, but said it would not arm the rebels or train them to fight.
UK sending military advisers to help Libyan rebels
LONDON | Tue Apr 19, 2011
10:21am EDT
By Adrian Croft
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Tuesday it would send
military officers to help Libyan rebels organize, a step likely to anger critics
who say the West is abusing a U.N. resolution to use force to protect civilians.
London said it would send officers, believed to number about a dozen, to Libya
to advise rebels on how to improve their organization and communications, but
would not train them to fight or arm them.
With the Libyan civil war risking getting bogged down in a long stalemate,
Western powers are searching for ways to bolster the rebels, whose fighting
efforts have been disorganized and lacked leadership.
Peter Bone, a member of parliament from Prime Minister David Cameron's
Conservative Party, raised concerns over the move and called for the recall of
parliament, on a break, to debate it.
"We are now looking at regime change and we are clearly backing the rebels. We
seem to be taking sides in a civil war. That may well be right but it's not for
the government to decide, it's for parliament to decide," Bone told Sky News.
RUSSIAN CRITICISM
Russia said Western attempts to topple Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi were a
violation of a U.N. resolution which only authorized the use of force to protect
civilians.
"The U.N. Security Council never aimed to topple the Libyan regime," Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Belgrade. "All those who are currently
using the U.N. resolution for that aim are violating the U.N. mandate."
In a statement the British Foreign Office said it would expand its diplomatic
team in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi with a military liaison advisory team
made up of experienced military officers.
"They will advise the (rebel) National Transitional Council (NTC) on how to
improve their military organizational structures, communications and logistics,
including how best to distribute humanitarian aid and deliver medical
assistance," it said.
The Foreign Office portrayed the move as part of efforts to protect Libyan
civilians and said the deployment was "fully within the terms" of the United
Nations Security Council resolution authorizing a no-fly zone over Libya.
That resolution rules out putting a foreign occupation force on Libyan soil.
"Our officers will not be involved in training or arming the opposition's
fighting forces. Nor will they be involved in the planning or execution of the
NTC's military operations or in the provision of any other form of operational
military advice," the Foreign Office said.
The British government has supplied telecommunications equipment and body armor
to the NTC but has taken no decision to provide arms, which the rebels are
seeking in order to match the firepower of Gaddafi's forces.
Britain has not recognized the NTC as Libya's government but the statement said
Britain regarded the council as "legitimate political interlocutors for the UK."
(Additional reporting by Matt Falloon, Olesya Dmitracova and
Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade; edited by Richard Meares)
BERLIN |
Fri Apr 15, 2011
1:41pm EDT
Reuters
By Erik Kirschbaum and David Brunnstrom
BERLIN
(Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Britain voiced
optimism on Friday that NATO allies would supply more combat planes for the
Libyan mission, but Italy ruled out ordering its planes to open fire.
Britain and France are urging other NATO allies to provide more planes capable
of hitting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's ground forces after Washington cut
back its role in the operation and passed command onto NATO on March 31.
"We have got indications that nations will deliver what is needed ... I'm
hopeful that we will get the necessary assets in the very near future,"
Rasmussen told a news conference at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in
Berlin.
The leaders of France, Britain and the United States published a jointly-written
newspaper article on Friday vowing to keep up their military campaign until
Gaddafi leaves power. Some countries, such as Russia, say that goes beyond the
terms of a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the campaign.
Libyan rebels have pleaded for more air strikes, saying they face a massacre
from government artillery barrages in the besieged city of Misrata.
The United States and European NATO allies have so far rebuffed French and
British calls to contribute more actively.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who has been lobbying other NATO allies
to provide more strike aircraft, also said after talks with U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton that he was hopeful more strike assets would be made
available.
Asked if Britain might be prepared to contribute more combat aircraft if other
allies did not step forward, Hague said: "We'll always keep that under review
but ... as of today this question doesn't arise."
HELPING THE
REBELS
Clinton said NATO allies were searching for ways to provide funds to Libya's
rebels and looking into how the rebels could sell oil from territory under their
control.
"The opposition needs a lot of assistance, on the organizational side, on the
humanitarian side, and on the military side," Clinton told reporters in Berlin.
"There have been a number of discussions about how to best provide that
assistance ... who's willing to do what. We're also searching for ways to
provide funding to the opposition.
"In addition to looking at how we can free up assets that could be used by the
opposition, we're also looking at how the opposition could sell oil from sites
that are under their control," she said.
Libyan rebels say they have been able to export only a small amount of crude oil
with the help of OPEC member Qatar but that they need international help to
continue overseas shipments.
French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said France and Britain wanted to extend
air strikes to logistics and decision centres of Gaddafi's army.
Italy, seen as a key candidate to increase NATO firepower but which is also the
former colonial power in Libya, ruled out ordering its aircraft to open fire.
Rome has made air bases available for NATO forces and has contributed eight
aircraft to the mission but only for reconnaissance and monitoring.
"The current line being followed by Italy is the right one and we are not
thinking about changing our contribution to the military operations in Libya,"
Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa told reporters in Rome.
Russia used the meeting with NATO in Berlin to spell out its concerns that
Western governments had overstepped the mandate of a United Nations resolution
authorizing a Libya no-fly zone.
"Today we see actions that in many cases go beyond the framework set by the
Security Council ... We talked openly about it today with our (NATO) partners,"
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news briefing.
"We think it is extremely important not to support the moves in favor of using
an excessive military force in order to resolve problems in Libya or any other
country in the region."
Russia abstained but did not veto the U.N. Security Council resolution last
month authorizing force to protect civilians.
NATO officials say the alliance is short of about 10 aircraft for air strikes. A
French official named Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden as countries that
could do more.
On Thursday, Spain said it had no plan to join the seven of the 28 NATO states
that have been involved in ground strikes.
Canada will not decide whether to contribute more fighter jets to NATO
operations over Libya until after a May 2 federal election, Prime Minister
Stephen Harper said on Friday.
Canada has six fighter jets in the region and Harper said he wanted legislators
to have a say over any further deployment. The Canadian parliament does not sit
during an election.
France
wants more strikes on Gaddafi logistic centers
PARIS | Fri
Apr 15, 2011
4:34am EDT
Reuters
PARIS
(Reuters) - France and Britain want to extend air strikes to the logistics and
decision centers of Muammar Gaddafi's army, rather than start arming Libyan
rebels, French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said on Friday.
Asked if it was time to send weapons to the rebels, Longuet said: "This is the
reason France and Britain want to show our determination, including with strikes
on military decision centres in Libya or on logistics depots which today are
being spared."
"Why? Because if we want to avoid civil war... the force of the other side must
be neutralised, and so the strikes we are asking for are aimed at not having to
arm the insurgents. Our goal is not to organize a front, it's that Gaddafi's
troops go back to their barracks," he told LCI television.
France, Britain and the United States vowed on Friday to keep up their military
campaign in Libya until Gaddafi leaves power, although the rebels say their
action so far is failing to stop Gaddafi's troops killing civilians.
A member of the opposition transition council told Reuters on Thursday that the
West must ramp up its operations and consider arming the rebels or sending in
troops to fight Gaddafi's forces, if it wants to stop civilian deaths in the
besieged western city of Misrata.
Suliman Fortea said during a brief visit to Paris that weapons were getting
through to the rebels, and defectors from Gaddafi's army were training them to
use them. But he said more help was needed to stop Gaddafi's assault.
Longuet said France appreciated it was difficult for the United States to get
more involved in Libya given its long-running engagements in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and reiterated the importance of a political solution to the
crisis.
(Reporting by
Catherine Bremer; Editing by Jon Boyle)
after allowing Libyan defector Moussa Koussa to travel to
conference in Qatar
Tuesday 12 April 2011
20.07 BST
Ian Black, Middle East editor, and Robert Booth
Guardian.co.uk
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 20.07 BST on Tuesday 12 April
2011. A version appeared on p6 of the Main section section of the Guardian on
Wednesday 13 April 2011. It was last modified at 00.06 BST on Wednesday 13 April
2011.
Libya's most high profile defector, foreign minister Moussa
Koussa, flew out of the UK on Tuesday to take part in a critical peace
conference amid anger from Lockerbie campaigners and accusations of "betrayal"
levelled at the British government.
Koussa made his surprise departure to Doha after the Foreign Office said he was
"a free individual, who can travel to and from the UK as he wishes".
He was expected to "offer insights" in advance of the conference on Libya in the
Qatari capital, being held with representatives from the Benghazi-based
opposition. The UN, Arab League and EU will all be represented, as will France,
Italy, Germany, Turkey and others.
But families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing accused the British
government of "betrayal" for allowing the former minister to leave the country.
Brian Flynn, the brother of J P Flynn, who died in the 1988 attack and now
organises the Victims of Pan Am 103 Incorporated campaign group in New York,
said the UK authorities had "crossed a line" by allowing Koussa to attend the
conference and thereby suggest he is a peace negotiator rather than, as they
believe, a key instigator of the bombing.
Other relatives said they were incensed that the defector was being allowed to
travel, while a Conservative MP accused the government of allowing Britain to be
used as "a transit lounge for alleged war criminals". Koussa, a longtime Gaddafi
loyalist, is said to be seeking to establish whether he has a role to play in
the rebel movement along with other senior defectors from the Gaddafi regime –
perhaps by brokering a deal between Tripoli and rebel-held Benghazi.
It is understood he spent a week being debriefed by the Secret Intelligence
Service, MI6, at a safe house. He was also questioned by Dumfries and Galloway
police about the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, in which 270 people died,
though was he was not a suspect. William Hague, the foreign secretary, had
insisted that Koussa would not be given immunity from prosecution. He was helped
to defect by MI6 after leaving Tripoli for Tunisia on what was initially
described as a private visit.
The hope in Whitehall is that Koussa's lenient treatment by the UK authorities
will send a positive signal to other would-be Libyan defectors as part of a
broader strategy of eroding Gaddafi's position. He is expected to return to the
UK after his Middle East trip.
The Doha conference is being billed as a follow-up by the "contact group" formed
after the London conference on Libya last month. Hague is co-hosting it with the
Qatari prime minister, Hamed bin Jassem, but Hillary Clinton is staying away,
perhaps signalling an attempt by the US to leave the heavy lifting to Europeans
and Arabs.
"I think the British are being played by him," said Flynn. "He has convinced
them he can be valuable in this process, but he is not the suave diplomat in the
suit sitting on the sidelines, he is one of the key guys who masterminded [the
bombing of] Pan Am flight 103. He is a stated enemy of the British government.
Our feeling is that the British government gave a nod to Lockerbie by
questioning him two days before this conference, but that feels disingenuous.
"The Scottish and American prosecutors on Lockerbie are being betrayed by the
politicians and the diplomats. Cameron has been good on Libya, but this sounds
an awful lot like Tony Blair is back in charge."
Flynn's group, the largest victims' group in the US, seeks to discover the truth
behind the bombing and bring justice for those who died. He said the families
believed the decision to allow Koussa to travel to the meeting in Qatar was part
of a British strategy to encourage other defectors to flee to Britain from
Gaddafi's regime, as there was no way either the rebels or the regime would
trust him as an intermediary.
Diplomats say the aim of the one-day event is to take stock of the Libyan
situation. But it will be dominated by the rejection by the Libyan opposition of
the African Union plan for a ceasefire and talks on a transition period with
Gaddafi and his family staying in place – a position unacceptable to the
opposition in Benghazi.
The crisis has become a long haul, with a military stalemate and no immediate
prospect that the Libyan leader is preparing to surrender. British officials
said Hague will reiterate demands that Gaddafi step down and allow the Libyan
people to determine their own future in line with UN security council
resolutions.
Agenda items include plans for humanitarian aid and stabilisation assistance,
with the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the
International Red Cross being tasked to deploy assessment missions in eastern
Libya as well as rebel-controlled enclaves in the west such as Misrata, which is
under siege by regime forces.
Pamela Dix, whose brother Peter Dix died in the Lockerbie bomb aged 32, said she
was incensed by the move. She said it seemed the decision showed a British
government once more placing political pragmatism ahead of justice for the
Lockerbie families and for other groups who claim to be victims of Libyan
state-sponsored terror.
"I feel now the politicians have decided they are not interested in getting a
resolution to Lockerbie. They have entered the same diplomatic game that David
Cameron vocally criticised the previous government for playing. I am extremely
frustrated. It seems never to be the right time to ask any Libyan about what
happened at Lockerbie. The thought of William Hague sitting down with this man
at the summit is deeply unpleasant."
Robert Halfon, Conservative MP for Harlow, said Britons would be "very concerned
that our country is being used as a transit lounge for alleged war criminals".
He added: "This sends the wrong signal to Gaddafi and those complicit in
dictatorships everywhere. It should not be forgotten that Moussa Koussa was
allegedly behind many IRA outrages, the Lockerbie bombing and the murder of WPC
Yvonne Fletcher. He should be here in the UK or facing trial in the
international courts for complicity in the Gaddafi regime."
LONDON (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary William Hague
called on the Syrian government to respect its people's right to free speech and
peaceful protest.
"We call upon the Syrian government to respect the right for free speech and
peaceful protest," he told reporters on Monday at a joint press conference with
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.
Hague also called on Syrian to put in place "meaningful reform, which is the
only legitimate response to the demands from the Syrian people."
Cameron visits Islamabad in effort to improve relations with
Pakistan
and foster better co-operation in fight against terrorism
Tuesday 5 April 2011
08.57 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Patrick Wintour in Islamabad
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 08.57 BST on Tuesday 5 April
2011.
It was last modified at 11.26 BST on Tuesday 5 April 2011.
David Cameron has taken a diplomatic gamble by pressing the
"reset button" on his fraught relations with the Pakistan government, telling
the country's president, Asif Ali Zardari, at a series of meetings in Islamabad
that he wants to work with Pakistan's security forces to fight the threat of
terrorism.
A year ago, Cameron put British relations with Pakistan in the deep freeze by
claiming the country's leadership was facing both ways on terrorism – remarks
that caused huge anger across the Pakistan government, military and intelligence
services.
During his one-day make-up visit, accompanied by his most senior defence and
security officials, Cameron offered Zardari £650m in aid to spread education,
extended intelligence co-operation and set up a joint "centre of excellence" in
Pakistan to exchange knowledge on how to counter improvised explosive devices.
He also sought to reassure his hosts that he did not see India as Britain's
preferred partner in the region, saying instead that he wanted to see trade
between Pakistan and the UK rise from £1.9bn to £2.5bn by 2015.
The aid for education, worth £650m over four years, will go to train 9,000
teachers, purchase 6m new text books and build 8,000 schools. The scheme has
been organised by Michael Barber, the former head of Tony Blair's public
services delivery unit.
There are 17 million children in Pakistan who are not in school, including seven
million primary school age children. The money will make Pakistan the biggest
single recipient of UK aid.
In what represents a remarkable turnaround,, British officials say they are
convinced that the growing internal Muslim terrorist threat inside the country
has led the leadership of the Pakistani intelligence services, the ISI, to take
a tougher role in combating both the Pakistan Taliban and al-Qaida.
Sir Peter Ricketts, the national security adviser, Sir David Richards, the chief
of the defence staff, and Sir John Sawers, the head of overseas intelligence,
are accompanying Cameron, and were in Islamabad only a month ago to prepare the
ground for what is being billed as an enhanced security dialogue.
At the lunchtime talks, Zardari brought his intelligence and defence chiefs.
Around half all terrorist cells operating in Britain originate from Pakistan,
the British intelligence services believe.
For years, Britain and the US have been frustrated at the way in which the ISI
has maintained such close relations with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
British officials indicated that they would be asking the Pakistan military, as
diplomatically as possibly, when they plan to enter North Waziristan, the tribal
heartland and sanctuary from which many terrorist groups operate.
Both British intelligence and the CIA believe North Waziristan to be the region
in which most of the suicide bombings inside Pakistan, and cross-border attacks
on US-led foreign and Afghan forces, are organised.
The Pakistan army has suffered big losses as a result of cleaning out other
federally administered tribal areas, and seems to be holding back from tackling
North Waziristan, partly due to striking a peace deal with extremists.
Pakistani troops moved into South Waziristan in 2009.
Pakistan says that, with 120,000 troops in the field, it currently lacks the
military capacity to lead an assault on a mountainous area that might lead to a
mass of refugees.
In the absence of troops on the ground, Britain supports the deadly use of
unmanned US drones to bomb terrorist targets in the area, a practice that is
regularly denounced by Pakistan politicians as counterproductive, in breach of
their sovereignty and leading to the death of innocent people.
Between 2007 and 2011, about 164 drone strikes had been carried out, killing
more than 964 militants. In Pakistan overall, 3,000 civilians are thought to
have lost their lives in terrorist attacks, such as suicide bombings, in the
past year.
Cameron's officials say they are nevertheless working to build a different,
broader long-term partnership with the Pakistan government in what is described
as a "less transactional relationship" between the two countries.
"We are not just coming with a set of immediate demands, but also listening
about the risks they face and their own security problems. It is about building
trust," one said.
Britain also thinks it is crucial to foster a better internal relationship
between the military and politicians in a country that only returned to a shaky
form of democracy three years ago.
The danger for the British is if its new-found faith in the ISI proves to be
unfounded, or that Pakistan is playing a waiting game until 2015, the deadline
by which UK troops will leave Afghanistan.
Cameron's aides are buoyed by signs that Pakistan wants to do more to foster a
political settlement in Afghanistan and build better relations with India.
Cameron opened his visit by seeing Pakistan's national mosque, the Faisal
masjid, the largest mosque in South Asia, constructed with the help of Saudi
money. He was accompanied by Lady Warsi, the Muslim cabinet member.
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Foreign Office strongly urged
Britons on Thursday to leave Yemen immediately after what it described as a
rapid deterioration in security and likely protests on Friday which might result
in violent clashes.
"Given the situation on the ground, it is highly unlikely that the British
Government will be able to evacuate British nationals or provide consular
assistance in the event of a further breakdown of law and order and increased
violent civil disorder," it said in a statement.
It urged Britons to leave while commercial airlines were still flying.
Dozens of people have been killed in weeks of street protests in the Arabian
Peninsula country demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh resign.
Britain has advised against all travel to the country since March 4, and on
March 12 urged Britons to leave immediately.
"In light of the rapid deterioration in the security situation in Yemen and
likely protests on Friday 1 April which might result in violent clashes, we
strongly urge all British nationals to leave the country now," the statement
added.
It called on all parties in Yemen to exercise the "utmost restraint and take all
steps necessary to "defuse tension on the ground" and to make urgent progress in
implementing political and economic reform.
"The Government of Yemen must take urgent action to build trust with the
opposition and with the protesters: without this trust, no agreement can be
reached," the statement said. "The Yemeni people want to see their legitimate
demands acknowledged and met and the UK fully supports them in this aspiration."
(Writing by Avril Ormsby; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
TRIPOLI/LONDON | Tue Mar 29, 2011
4:01am EDT
Reuters
By Maria Golovnina and Adrian Croft
TRIPOLI/LONDON (Reuters) - World powers meet on Thursday to
try to lay the groundwork for a Libya without Muammar Gaddafi after President
Barack Obama said U.S. forces would not get bogged down trying to topple the
Libyan leader.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who
led the drive for a muscular intervention in the conflict, called on Monday for
Gaddafi to go and for his followers to abandon him before it was "too late".
"We call on all Libyans who believe that Gaddafi is leading Libya into a
disaster to take the initiative now to organize a transition process," they said
in a statement.
Emboldened by Western-led air strikes against Gaddafi's troops, rebels took the
town of Nawfaliyah and pushed west toward Sirte, Gaddafi's home town and an
important military base, in the sixth week of an uprising against his 41-year
rule.
Rebels fired mortars and heavy machineguns in sporadic clashes with loyalist
forces in the oil-producing state.
Further west, rebels and forces loyal to Gaddafi both claimed control over parts
of Misrata and fighting appeared to persist in the fiercely contested third
largest city.
Arab and Libyan media said late on Monday that coalition forces had bombed west
and south of the capital Tripoli.
Libyan state television said a leather factory was struck when "colonial and
crusader aggressors" bombed Surman, some 70 km (45 miles) west of Tripoli.
"SPLINTER"
The London meeting is expected to set up a high-level steering group, including
Arab states, to provide political guidance for the international response to the
crisis and coordinate long-term support to Libyans.
Britain has invited Mahmoud Jebril, a member of the rebel Libyan National
Council, to London although he is not formally invited to the conference, a
diplomatic source said.
Some 40 governments and international organizations will discuss stepping up
humanitarian aid, and call for a political process to enable Libyans to choose
their own future.
In a nationally televised speech, Obama said NATO would take over full command
of military operations from the United States on Wednesday.
Obama vowed to work with allies to hasten Gaddafi's exit from power but said he
would not use force to topple him -- as his predecessor President George W. Bush
did in ousting Saddam Hussein in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
"To be blunt, we went down that road in Iraq," Obama told an audience of
military officers in Washington. "But regime change there took eight years,
thousands of American and Iraqi lives, and nearly a trillion dollars. That is
not something we can afford to repeat in Libya."
Broadening the Libya military mission to include regime change would be a
mistake, Obama said, and "if we tried to overthrow Gaddafi by force, our
coalition would splinter," making it likely U.S. ground troops would have to be
deployed.
He did not specify how long U.S. forces would be involved or how they would
eventually exit the conflict.
Obama's challenge was to define the limited purpose and scope of the U.S.
mission in Libya for Americans preoccupied with domestic economic concerns and
weary of costly wars in two other Muslim countries, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Going beyond the specifics of the U.N. resolution that mandated intervention
could also risk losing international and Arab support.
Western-led air strikes began on March 19, two days after the U.N. Security
Council authorized "all necessary measures" to protect civilians from Gaddafi's
forces.
QATAR RECOGNITION
As the diplomatic activity increased ahead of the London conference, Italy
proposed a deal including a ceasefire, exile for Gaddafi and dialogue between
rebels and tribal leaders.
The rebel leadership has ruled out compromise with Gaddafi's followers.
"We have had a vision from the very beginning and the main ingredient of this
vision is the downfall of the Gaddafi regime," spokesman Hafiz Ghoga told
reporters in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya.
Qatar became the first Arab country on Monday to recognize the rebels as the
people's legitimate representative, in a move that may presage similar moves
from other Gulf states. Libyan state television called the move "blatant
interference."
Since the start of the Western-led bombing, the volunteer force of rebels has
pressed half-way along the coast from its stronghold of Benghazi toward Tripoli
and regained control of major oil terminals in the OPEC state.
The United States has given a green light to sales of crude oil from rebel-held
territory, giving a potential boost to the rebels who would not be subject to
U.S. sanctions.
But U.S. Vice Admiral Bill Gortney said their battlefield gains in recent days
were tenuous.
While the U.S. military is not communicating officially with opposition forces,
Gortney said, the United States was seeking to piece together a more complete
picture of who they are and where they are positioned.
"We would like a much better understanding of the opposition," he said. "We're
trying to fill in those knowledge gaps."
He said the United States had no confirmed report of any civilian casualty
caused by coalition forces.
As the rebels pressed on in the east, Gaddafi's troops were patrolling an area
near the center of Misrata after shelling the previously rebel-controlled
western city for days. The government said it had "liberated" Misrata and
declared a ceasefire there.
Gaddafi soldiers manned checkpoints and took up positions on rooftops. Some
housefronts were smashed, smoke rose from several areas and gunfire rang out
across the city.
Several civilians approached a group of journalists, some of them woman and
children waving green flags. "Misrata is ours, there are still some bad guys in
other parts, but Gaddafi is winning, the city is ours," resident Abduq Karim
said.
Soldiers were manning checkpoints and green Libyan flags flapped in the wind.
Militiamen fired AK-47 rifles defiantly into the air. "If they come to Sirte, we
will defend our city," said Osama bin Nafaa, 32, a policeman.
(Additional reporting by Angus MacSwan, Alexander Dziadosz,
Edmund Blair, Maria Golovnina, Michael Georgy, Ibon Villelabeitia, Lamine
Chikhi, Mariam Karouny, Joseph Nasr, Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Steve Gutterman,
Matt Spetalnick and Alister Bull; Writing by Alison Williams; Editing by Sanjeev
Miglani)
UK "extremely disturbed" by events in Yemen: Cameron
LONDON | Mon Mar 21, 2011
12:21pm EDT
Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is "extremely disturbed" by events in Yemen, which
has been torn by protests and violence, Prime Minister David Cameron said on
Monday.
"We're obviously extremely disturbed by what is happening in Yemen, particularly
the recent events, and we've urged every country in that region to respond to
the aspirations of its people with reform and not with repression," Cameron told
parliament.
Snipers killed 52 anti-government protesters on Friday, prompting President Ali
Abdullah Saleh to sack his cabinet and declare a state of emergency for 30 days.
(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Matt Falloon)
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Ministry of Defense said Sunday
that one of its submarines had again fired guided Tomahawk missiles as part of a
second wave of attacks on Libyan air defense systems.
"For a second time, the UK has launched guided Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles
from a Trafalgar Class submarine in the Mediterranean as part of a coordinated
coalition plan to enforce the resolution," Major General John Lorimer said in an
emailed statement.
"We and our international partners are continuing operations in support of the
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973."
(Reporting by Paul Hoskins; editing by Karolina Tagaris)
UK, U.S.
and France agree to work closely on Libya
Thu, Mar 17
2011
WASHINGTON | Thu Mar 17, 2011
Reuters
9:45pm EDT
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama called his British and French counterparts on
Thursday and the three agreed Libya must comply with a new U.N. Security Council
resolution, the White House said.
Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy
also agreed that violence against the civilian population of Libya must cease.
They agreed to coordinate closely on the next steps and to continue working with
Arab and other international partners to ensure the enforcement of U.N. Security
resolutions on Libya.
The Security Council voted on Thursday to authorize a no-fly zone over Libya and
"all necessary measures" -- code for military action -- to protect civilians
against leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
(Reporting by
Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Peter Cooney)
PARIS (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his ruling clique have
lost legitimacy and must step down to end violence in the country, French
President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron said on
Thursday.
In a letter signed by both leaders and addressed to the president of the
European Union Council, Herman von Rompuy, they called for plans to prepare to
help the Libyan rebellion and said these could include imposing a no-fly zone
over Libya.
"It is clear to us the (Libyan) regime has lost any legitimacy that it could
have," the letter said. "To end the suffering of the Libyan people, Muammar
Gaddafi and his clique must leave."
Sarkozy and Cameron, who have been working together to draft a United Nations
Security Council resolution about Libya, also urged the EU to recognize the
rebellion's National Libyan Council as a viable political entity.
"We need to send a clear political signal that we consider the Council as a
viable political counter-party and an important voice for the Libyan people at
this time," the letter said.
France became the first country to recognize the rebel group earlier on
Thursday, and Sarkozy has raised the idea of a limited air campaign against
forces loyal to Gaddafi, three party sources told Reuters after a lunch with the
president.
Sarkozy will present concrete plans for a response to the crisis at a European
Union summit on Friday in Brussels. The sources said that the possibility of
strikes was among the options to be discussed.
The U.N. Security Council is split on whether to authorize a no-fly zone over
Libya, an option Paris and London have pushed as they seek ways to limit Muammar
Gaddafi's ability to mobilize his forces against rebels.
The British and French leaders also called on the international community to
enforce an arms embargo on Libya.
"We call on all countries to enforce completely the embargo on weapons,
including on supplies for armed mercenaries," they said in the letter, which
outlined seven points to be raised at the European meeting on Friday.
(Writing by Nicholas Vinocur; editing by Robert Woodward)
William Hague: I take full responsibility for Libya mission
Foreign secretary tells MPs detention of MI6 officers and SAS soldiers was due
to a 'serious misunderstanding'
Monday 7 March 2011
18.24 GMT
Guardian.co.uk
Hélène Mulholland
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 18.24 GMT on Monday 7 March
2011.
The foreign secretary, William Hague, has told MPs he takes
"full responsibility" for the secret mission which left Britain severely
embarrassed when an eight-strong team including special forces were detained
after landing by helicopter at night.
He confirmed he authorised the decision to send the team of MI6 officers and SAS
soldiers, which was withdrawn after "a serious misunderstanding about their
role, leading to their temporary detention."
Pressed on the details, he said "timing and details" of the mission had been
"decided by the professionals" but insisted he took "full ministerial
responsibility" for the operation and confirmed that the prime minister, David
Cameron, had been aware in advance.
Hague received a barrage of criticism from MPs over what one described as an
"ill-conceived and poorly planned" decision to send a team into eastern Libya in
an effort to build diplomatic contacts with rebels opposed to the regime of
dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader, told Hague Britain
would now have to "restore" its reputation abroad following the botched plan,
while the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, said the affair
represented just the "latest setback" for the UK and raised "further serious
questions about ministers' grip and response to the unfolding events in Libya".
Hague said opposition groups in eastern Libya had formed an interim national
council in Benghazi on Saturday and ministers and Foreign Office officials were
in contact with the council, who welcomed the idea of a British diplomatic
mission to Libya.
Hague said: "This engagement is vitally important to gain a better understanding
of the political, military and humanitarian situation on the ground. Last week I
authorised the dispatch of a small British diplomatic team to eastern Libya, in
uncertain circumstances which we judged required their protection, to build on
these initial contacts and to assess the scope for closer diplomatic dialogue. I
pay tribute to that team."
The foreign secretary said the situation that led to their detention had been
resolved and they were able to meet council president Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, but
"it was clearly better for this team to be withdrawn. We intend to send further
diplomats to eastern Libya in due course."
He added: "When our staff go into a potentially dangerous situation, then the
level of protection is provided for them based on professional and military
advice. We do that in many places around the world and, of course, it was
important to do that in this situation. I authorised such a mission to be made,
to put a diplomatic team into eastern Libya, as I explained, with protection. Of
course the timing and details of that are operational matters decided by the
professionals but ministers must have confidence in their judgments, as I do,
and must take full ministerial responsibility for all their actions and
judgments and, of course, I do. Of course, the prime minister and colleagues
were aware that we would attempt to put a diplomatic team into eastern Libya."
Alexander asked Hague whether ministers were learnings lessons from their
blunders.
"Given that it remains uncertain whether this wave of revolt is over, and we
continue to hear talk of protests in countries beyond Tunisia, Libya and Egypt,
can we be confident that lessons are being learned by ministers about the serial
bungling that we have seen in recent weeks? That is what the British people want
and that is what the British people deserve."
He pressed Hague on the thinking behind his decision to send in SAS troops by
helicopter in light of the fact that he had already established phone contact
with rebel leaders, including former interior minister Abdul Fattah Younis.
Alexander quoted the rebel council, which declared itself this weekend the sole
legitimate authority in the country, who expressed surprise and annoyance at the
British delegation's "James Bond" antics.
Mustafa Gheriani, a spokesman for the revolutionary leadership, told the Times.
"If this is an official delegation why did they come with a helicopter? Why
didn't they [inform the revolutionary council] that 'we are coming, we'd like to
land at Benina airport', or come through Egypt like all the journalists have
done.".
Alexander also asked Hague to confirm that the team could have come in with HMS
Cumberland, a British frigate that was openly docked in Benghazi port two miles
away from the Benghazi courthouse, which is serving as the headquarters of the
interim national council.
"The British public are entitled to wonder whether, if some new neighbours moved
in to the foreign secretary's street, he would introduce himself by ringing the
doorbell or instead choose to climb over the fence in the middle of the night,"
said Alexander, to laughter from the Labour benches.
The mission was the latest in a series of setbacks for the Foreign Office, he
said.
"Firstly, we had the still-unexplained decision by the foreign secretary, alone
among European foreign ministers, to publicise reports that Gaddafi was already
on his way to Venezuela. Then the Foreign Office was late to secure charter
flights and even to convene the government's emergency committee Cobra, when
hundreds of UK nationals were stranded and clearly in danger. Then last week,
the option of a no-fly zone was first talked up and then talked down, with the
US defence secretary warning against loose talk on the issue."
Alexander added: "After the events of this weekend and following the flights
fiasco, twice in as many weeks ministerial decisions have generated an
embarrassment that could all too easily have become a tragedy."
Campbell, MP for North East Fife, also waded in, telling Hague: "I regret what I
am about to say. Isn't it clear that this mission was ill-conceived, poorly
planned and embarrassingly executed? What are you going to do to restore the
reputation of the United Kingdom in relation to foreign policy in the Middle
East? What will be the role of any further mission and what permissions will it
seek before it goes?"
Hague reiterated how Britain has "led the way" in getting Libya suspended from
the UN human rights commission and insisted British foreign policy had had an
"extremely powerful" impact on the situation.
Alexander said he supported the government's aim of establishing a dialogue with
Gaddafi's opponents and welcomed Hague's statement that further efforts would be
made to engage with such forces. "But our welcome to that initiative is
conditional, for it should be done in a considered, co-ordinated way with our
European and Nato allies," he said.
He suggested Hague should invite the Arab League to attend Friday's EU summit to
"signal clearly the breadth of international pressure in the region and beyond
on the Gaddafi regime".
Hague said the UK would continue to work closely with the Arab League but he was
unsure whether it would be possible for them to attend the EU meeting.
The foreign secretary said that he was upgrading the status of the Palestinian
Authority's diplomatic representatives in the UK to coincide with this week's
visit by the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas. He said the delegation was being
upgraded to the level of a "mission" and he would discuss the push for peace in
the Middle East with Abbas on Tuesday.
Alexander welcomed the move. "You can rely on the support from these benches as
you continue to make the case for renewed urgency to efforts to bring about real
and meaningful negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians," he
said."
UK
diplomatic team leaves Libya after issues resolved
BENGHAZI,
Libya/LONDON | Sun Mar 6, 2011
8:17pm EST
By Tom Pfeiffer and Stefano Ambrogi
BENGHAZI,
Libya/LONDON (Reuters) - A British diplomatic team, which is reported to have
included special forces soldiers, left Libya Sunday after being captured by
rebels in the eastern town of Benghazi.
Britain said the team left Libya after running into difficulties. It did not
mention the special forces soldiers.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said the problems the team had encountered had
been "satisfactorily resolved" and Britain would send another delegation to meet
rebel leaders soon.
"This diplomatic effort is part of the UK's wider work on Libya, including our
ongoing humanitarian support," he said.
A rebel spokesman in Benghazi confirmed that the team, including the crack
troops, had left Libya.
Earlier the Sunday Times had said the eight armed but plain- clothed soldiers
belonged to the Special Air Service (SAS) whose regiment has seen service in
Iraq and Afghanistan and has a special place in British military folklore.
A Libyan human rights activist with links to the rebels told Reuters the team
was seized because they had aroused suspicion.
"They (the rebel army) did capture some British special forces. They could not
ascertain if they were friends or foes," said the source in Benghazi. We do not
know why they (British government) did not get in touch first or (detail) the
purpose of their mission."
The Sunday Times said the team were intercepted as they escorted a junior
diplomat through rebel-held territory. He was preparing the way for a visit by a
senior colleague to try to establish diplomatic contact with the rebels, it
said.
Rebel sources expressed puzzlement about the mission.
"If this is an official delegation, why come with helicopters? Why not say 'we
are coming, permission to land at the airport?' There are rules for these
things," one said.
Britain has taken a strong stance against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and
wants to work with rebels to help oust him.
British Defense Secretary Liam Fox said earlier that a diplomatic team had gone
to Benghazi but he declined to comment on whether special forces had been
captured.
"It is a very difficult situation. There are a number of different opposition
groups to Colonel Gaddafi in Libya. They do seem relatively disparate," Fox
said.
"We want to clearly understand what the dynamic is there because we want to be
able to work with them to ensure the demise of the Gaddafi regime, to see a
transition to greater stability in Libya and ultimately to more representative
government," he said.
Fox ruled out the use of British military ground forces in Libya but said a
no-fly zone remained a possibility. NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels
on March 10-11 would examine no-fly zone options.
(Additional
reporting Adrian Croft and Keith Weir, Writing by Edmund Blair in Cairo, Editing
by Diana Abdallah)
UK to airlift 6,000 Egyptians stranded fleeing Libya
David Cameron tells Commons of surprise move to rescue and
repatriate refugees stuck at Libyan-Tunisian border
Guardian.co.uk
Hélène Mulholland and Nicholas Watt
Wednesday 2 March 2011
14.06 GMT
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 14.06 GMT on Wednesday 2 March
2011.
It was last modified at 14.20 GMT on Wednesday 2 March 2011.
The UK has launched an operation to airlift 6,000 Egyptian
refugees stranded on the Libyan-Tunisian border back to their home country,
David Cameron revealed at prime minister's question time.
Updating MPs on the British response to the humanitarian situation, the prime
minister said there were "serious indications of a growing humanitarian crisis",
with some 162,000 people reported to have crossed the land borders so far.
Cameron, who faced criticism last week for the pace of Britain's response to
evacuate Britons caught up in the Libyan uprising, surprised MPs by with the
airlift operation.
He said technical teams from the Department for International Development had
been sent to Libya's borders with Egypt and Tunisia, and on Tuesday the UK
government had flown in tents for 1,500 people and blankets for 36,000.
The first flight for the airlift from the Tunisian-Libyan border was scheduled
to leave the UK later on Wednesday, Cameron said.
Britain will use three chartered plans, flying in rotation, to evacuate 6,000
Egyptian citizens . The planes will fly from Britain to Djerba, in Tunisia. They
will then embark on a series of flights from Djerba to Cairo.
Britain is sending the flights after receiving a request from the UN, which has
warned that 85,000 people are stranded on the border.
Cameron told MPs: "It is vital to do this. These people shouldn't be kept in
transit camps if it's possible to take them back to their home, and I'm glad
that Britain can play such an important part in doing that."
Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, had asked what support was being offered to
international organisations helping to tackle the crisis.
Cameron said HMS York has now docked in the eastern Libyan port of Benghazi,
carrying medical and other supplies that would help with the humanitarian
mission, and the UK was in "very close" contact with the international agencies
involved in the relief effort.
"We have the forward basing of a lot of tents and other equipment in Dubai," he
said, "which means that it is relatively close to the area and we will go on
doing everything we can to ease the problems at the border and make sure this
emergency doesn't turn into a crisis."
The prime minister also told MPs he was still committed to carrying out
preliminary work on establishing a no-fly zone over Libya.
Asked by Miliband about the unease across the world about imposing a no-fly
zone, the prime minister said: "We should, and we are, looking at plans for a
no-fly zone. I was particularly heartened by what Secretary of State Clinton
said. She said a no-fly zone is an option we actively considering. These issues
are being discussed at the North Atlantic Council, and I think it is right that
they are."
Cameron also made it clear Britain wants to see Muammar Gaddafi overthrown. He
said: "I think we should support, and say how much we admire, those brave people
who are standing up in their own country, asking for greater freedoms, greater
democracy – the things we take for granted in our own country.
"Many ... said any sort of rebellion like this would either be extremist or
Islamist, or tribal. It is none of those things. It is revolt by the people who
want to have greater democracy in their country."
British sources, who admit that military intervention is unlikely at the moment,
indicated that action would be taken if Gaddafi used the several tonnes of
mustard gas that are under his control.
One source said: "We know he has stocks of mustard gas. They are in a secure
compound. They are not weaponised. As part of the deal he reached on his WMD, he
agreed to reduce them; the question is whether he sticks by his commitments."
Libya: Daring SAS mission rescues Britons and others
from desert
RAF Hercules fly more than 150 oil workers to Malta – but up to 500 still
stranded in compounds
Saturday 26 February 2011
20.25 GMT
Guardian.co.uk
Toby Helm and Mark Townsend in London and Paul Harris in New York
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 20.25 GMT on Saturday 26
February 2011.
It was last modified at 02.00 GMT on Sunday 27 February 2011.
More than 150 workers were dramatically rescued from the
Libyan desert as two RAF Hercules aircraft – backed by the SAS – pulled off a
high-risk evacuation of British and other citizens.
As world leaders united to demand that Muammar Gaddafi face the full
consequences of what Barack Obama called the "brutalisation" of his people, the
defence secretary, Liam Fox, confirmed that the rescue had been a success, so
far.
It is believed that units of British special forces secured runways south of
Benghazi to allow the Hercules aircraft to land safely.
A statement from the Foreign Office said that the rescued workers had been met
by consular officials and Red Cross staff when they landed in the Maltese
capital, Valletta. "Once disembarked, the passengers will be given food and
water and offered full consular assistance," a Foreign Office spokesman said.
"This includes immigration processing and a medical. They will then be bussed to
hotels, where they will stay overnight."
Last night the Foreign Office – which had been heavily criticised earlier in the
week for being slow to get people out – said that up to 500 Britons remained in
desert camps. "Nothing is complete yet," said a spokesman. Meanwhile HMS
Cumberland was on its way back to Benghazi to evacuate the last Britons from the
rebel-held city.
Plans for the emergency operation, carried out with the help of the SAS and
members of the Special Boat Service who had been on standby in Malta, were
finalised at a meeting of the government's emergency committee, Cobra.
Government sources said the operation had been hazardous and complex, because
the desert compounds were under threat from armed gangs and contained nationals
from many countries.
David Cameron was in touch with leaders of other nations – including Germany,
Italy and Turkey – to co-ordinate operations. In the international community
there was agreement that once the evacuation was complete, the strongest action
had to be taken through the UN and EU against the Libyan leader.
There were unconfirmed reports that Tony Blair had telephoned Gaddafi urging him
to stop killing his own countrymen, and warning him that if he refused to do so,
Nato troops might be sent in. The claims were made by one of Gaddafi's sons,
Saadi, in a telephone interview from Tripoli.
As the rescue drama unfolded, on the streets of the city there was a standoff.
According to journalists allowed access to Tripoli by the Libyan foreign
ministry, the capital appeared divided between the quiet and controlled seafront
areas, and the small alleys of the poorer neighbourhoods. In the less prosperous
areas there were few signs of the security forces, which had abandoned the
working-class Tajoura district after five days of anti-government
demonstrations.
Troops were said to have opened fired on demonstrators who tried to march from
Tajoura to Green square in the city centre overnight, killing at least five
people. The number could not be confirmed. A funeral yesterday for one victim
turned into another rally. "Everyone in Tajoura came out against the government.
We saw them killing our people here and everywhere," Ali, 25, said.
Last night the operations of the British embassy in Tripoli were suspended and
its staff flown to London. A Downing Street spokesman said that Cameron – keen
to seize the initiative after a week of damaging headlines over the Foreign
Office's earlier failings – was more determined than ever that Gaddafi be held
to account: "The prime minister was clear that the Libyan regime would face the
consequences of its actions. He agreed with counterparts that urgent action was
needed through the EU and UN, including a tough sanctions package targeting the
regime directly. The prime minister stressed that there could be no impunity for
the blatant and inhuman disregard for basic rights taking place."
Those who arrived in Britain on charter flights described the panic. Iftikhar
Ulhak, 59, a chemical engineer from Wimbledon in south London, said: "There were
women, children, old people. It was terrible getting into the airport. It took
us four hours despite the British embassy staff were there."
The Foreign Office said that it had helped evacuate 600 Britons, placing 450 on
aircraft, boats and ferries, and advising a further 150.
The UN security council voted unanimously to accept a draft resolution imposing
international travel bans on Gaddafi, his family and inner circle and freezing
their assets. The list includes Gaddafi and eight of his children, as well as
figures in the army and intelligence services. The UN also supported a referral
of the case to the International criminal court in the Hague.
In Washington, Obama sharpened his tone after the evacuation of US citizens and
said Gaddafi should "leave now". "Gaddafi, his government and close associates
have taken extreme measures against the people of Libya, including using weapons
of war, mercenaries and wanton violence against unarmed civilians," Obama said.
US pressure will come to bear tomorrow as the secretary of state, Hillary
Clinton, flies to Geneva to address the UN human rights council in Geneva.
Labour leader Ed Miliband, writing in today's Observer, said the democracy
movements had shown the need for a profound rethink of foreign policy. "The
extraordinary events of the past few weeks have served to underline that our
alliances should be defined by our values, rather than our values defined by our
alliances," he said.
UK urges pressure on Gaddafi, EU weighs intervention
LONDON/BRUSSELS | Thu Feb 24, 2011
2:49pm EST
Reuters
By Adrian Croft and Justyna Pawlak
LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain urged the world to exert
greater pressure on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Thursday and the European
Union said it was considering sending a humanitarian intervention force to the
country.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague called for an international
investigation into Libyan state violence, while Gaddafi's forces stepped up
their week-long struggle to crush protesters wanting to end his 41-year rule.
Meanwhile, the United States said it was looking at all options, including
enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya, and did not rule out military action in its
response to the crisis.
The international community must "increase the pressure on a regime which by all
accounts is now committing serious offences," Hague told BBC Radio.
He said atrocities had taken place and the odds against Gaddafi's political
survival were lengthening.
"We will be looking for ways to hold to account the people who are responsible
for these things ..." he said. "We will want some kind of international
investigation."
Britain wants Libya suspended from the U.N. Human Rights Council, which is due
to meet on Friday, Hague told Sky News.
The U.S. State Department said the United States backed Libya's suspension from
the council and was prepared to take additional steps to try to stop the
violence.
Britain's Defense Secretary Liam Fox said his country had been discussing with
the NATO leadership how better to coordinate efforts to get people from a number
of different countries out of Libya over the next few days.
The British government has been heavily criticized at home for being slow to
evacuate Britons from Libya.
APOLOGY
Prime Minister David Cameron apologized for the delay. "Of course I am extremely
sorry," Cameron told the BBC. "There are ... lessons to be learned from this ...
right now, the priority has got to be getting those British nationals home."
Cameron, who returns on Thursday from a visit to the Gulf, will chair a meeting
of Britain's National Security Council on Libya on Friday, Hague said.
In Brussels, senior officials said the European Union was weighing a range of
options to evacuate 5,000-6,000 EU citizens still in Libya, many of them oil
company employees, and said one possibility was a military humanitarian
intervention force.
"We are in contact with EU member states to see whether their facilities,
civilian and military, can be deployed for this (evacuation of EU citizens)," a
senior EU official said.
The United States is also looking to work more closely with the EU over Libya.
A high-level British government crisis committee met to discuss the crisis,
including how to evacuate 170 British oil workers from remote desert camps in
Libya. Some have appealed for help after looters seized their vehicles and
supplies.
Sky News quoted sources as saying the Special Boat Service, a special forces
unit, was on standby for a possible rescue mission to Libya, but the government
declined comment.
Fox said a military rescue operation would depend on the situation on the
ground.
"If we can move people by road and get them into Egypt or alternatively into
Tunisia by road that is clearly less hazardous," he said in a pooled TV
interview.
"It's very difficult to know what some of the air defenses for example would be
in Libya. We have to minimize the risk for our armed forces at the same time as
trying to ensure the maximum safety for UK citizens."
The Foreign Office said a British Navy frigate, HMS Cumberland, left the Libyan
port of Benghazi carrying more than 200 people, 68 of whom were British. More
than 10 nationalities were also on board, including Americans, Canadians,
French, Italians and Ukrainians. Three flights carrying Britons left Tripoli on
Thursday, it said.
British Premier Is First Leader to Visit New Egypt
February 21, 2011
Filed at 8:40 a.m. EST
By REUTERS
CAIRO (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron on
Monday became the first foreign leader to visit post-Mubarak Egypt and will push
for an end to emergency law, while refusing to talk to the influential Muslim
Brotherhood.
The downfall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and uprisings across the region have
prompted Western governments to rethink their policies of supporting autocrats,
but have also raised concerns about the rise of Islamist groups in their place.
The prime minister told reporters before his arrival in Cairo that he wanted to
expand security relations with the new Egypt "in combating extremist terror." He
also said: "We have got very important trading relationships we want to expand.
Cameron is at the spearhead of a diplomatic initiative to understand the new
political landscape after the uprising in this key U.S. ally which has a peace
treaty with Israel.
During the visit, Cameron met Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who now
heads the military council that governs the Arab world's most populous nation.
The council has promised to deliver free elections and civilian rule.
"The most important thing for us is to hear how we can help this transition be
successful," Cameron said to Tantawi.
British officials said, however, that Cameron will not speak with the Muslim
Brotherhood, which is regarded with suspicion in Washington, is Egypt's biggest
and best organised political grouping and which wants a democracy with Islamic
principles.
It would be a positive sign to meet other, less organised opposition groups than
the Brotherhood, to highlight the fact that Islamists are not the only
alternative to Mubarak, the British officials said.
Cameron will specifically appeal to the military to lift emergency law, the
cornerstone of Mubarak's iron rule and implemented after the assassination of
Anwar Sadat in 1981 by Islamist officers from his army.
The complete disbandment of the current cabinet, mostly appointed by Mubarak,
the lifting of emergency law and the freeing of political prisoners are key
demands from reformists and activists who toppled Mubarak.
Cameron's arrival came hot on the heels of a visit by William J. Burns, U.S.
Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, who landed earlier on Monday. EU
foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is due to arrive in Egypt on Tuesday.
CIVILIAN RULE
"I think this is a great opportunity to talk to those currently running Egypt to
make sure this really is a genuine transition from military rule to civilian
rule," the British prime minister said, before arriving in Cairo.
Uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia have sent shockwaves through the Middle East,
threatening entrenched dynasties from Libya to Bahrain. The West has watched
with alarm as long-time allies and foes came under threat, urging reform and
restraint.
The Muslim Brotherhood, once banned and playing a growing role in the new Egypt,
rejected a government reshuffle on Monday, calling for a purge of the old guard
cabinet.
Egypt's new military rulers, who took over after an 18-day uprising ended 30
years of Mubarak's rule, have said change in the constitution for elections in
six months should be ready soon and hated emergency laws would be lifted before
the polls.
In a bid to placate pro-democracy activists, the cabinet reshuffle named several
Mubarak opponents but disappointed those eager for a new line-up as key defense,
foreign, justice, interior and finance portfolios were left unchanged.
But for many democracy advocates, who want a completely new cabinet with no
links to Mubarak's corrupt and autocratic elite to govern Egypt, the military
needs to put fresh faces in.
"No one offered us any post and had they done so, we would have refused because
we request what the public demands that this government quit as it is part of
the former regime," said Essam El-Erian, a senior member of the Brotherhood.
"We want a new technocratic government that has no connection with the old era,"
he told Reuters on Monday.
The Brotherhood is represented on a constitutional change committee, a council
to protect the revolution and will register as soon as new rules allow.
"OPEN POLITICAL SPACE"
Uncertainty remains over how much influence Egypt's military will seek to exert
in reshaping a ruling system which it has propped up for six decades, with
diplomats saying it is vital to "create an open political space."
Wary of a clampdown, the Brotherhood took a cautious line early in the protests
but has slowly assumed a more prominent role. It still treads carefully, saying
it will not field a presidential candidate or seek a majority in parliament.
Any sign the army is reneging on its promises of democracy and civilian rule
could reignite mass protests on the street.
Friday's celebrations which marked a week since Mubarak's overthrow served as a
reminder to the military of people power.
The military on Monday announced an amnesty for weapons stolen during the
revolution and there were pockets of protests in and around Cairo over pay and
conditions despite an order aimed at ending strikes and protests damaging the
economy.
In moves to appease democracy advocates, authorities said on Sunday they
released 108 political prisoners and Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq on Monday
ordered that streets be renamed to honor some of the 365 "martyrs" who died in
the revolt.
(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair, Shaimaa Fayed, Marwa Awad,
Tom Perry; Writing by Peter Millership)
LONDON
(Reuters) - Britain is to formally review its recent licensing decisions for
arms exports to Bahrain after violence broke out in the small Gulf state, a
Foreign Office minister said on Thursday.
The licenses have included tear gas cartridges and equipment that can be used
for riot control.
"In light of events we are today formally reviewing recent licensing decisions
for exports to Bahrain," Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Alistair
Burt said in a statement.
"We will urgently revoke licenses if we judge that they are no longer in line
with the (consolidated EU and UK export licensing) Criteria."
Troops in armored vehicles took control of the Bahraini capital after police
firing buckshot and teargas drove out protesters hoping to emulate demonstrators
who toppled veteran leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.
