Britain will push the US and Nato to hammer out an agreement on a no-fly zone for Libya today, amid signs of a split in the Obama Administration on whether UN backing would be needed.
As Libyan rebels issued urgent new appeals for protection from aerial attack, No 10 said Britain’s aim at a Nato defence ministers’ summit today was to ensure that the alliance was “ready to act” to stop the suffering.
In a glimmer of hope for British and French officials seeking quicker action from the US, the White House distanced itself for the first time from a policy tied to UN approval, creating a chance for rapid movement after indecision by the White House.
Any no-fly zone would depend on American aircraft and know-how. Hillary Clinton insisted for the second time in two days yesterday that such a move could be authorised only by the UN Security Council, where Russia and China are expected to veto any military intervention.
However, Mr Obama’s spokesman refused to endorse the Secretary of State’s position, while in Brussels US and British officials at Nato offered the same three conditions for a no-fly zone. These included a “proper legal basis” for intervention but did not specify that it had to come from the UN.
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Amid the diplomatic confusion, the message from rebels under siege in Libya was clear. “We want at least a no-fly zone but it is taking all this time,” Iman Bugaigis of the February 17 coalition said. “Hundreds are dying every day and they don’t want to take any action.”
Figures from the provisional rebel government in Benghazi reinforced calls for a no-fly zone, while rebel fighters on the front line were heard chanting: “Where is Obama? We want a no-fly zone!”
Mr Obama held talks on Libya with his top security staff yesterday, but with each day that he spends listening to advisers rather than leading the response to the crisis, the pressure to resolve it with military force intensifies.
John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been urging him for weeks to shed his fear of being seen as another George Bush and to take a tougher line against Colonel Gaddafi.
Senators Joe Lieberman and John McCain have demanded swift action to help the rebels, and they were joined yesterday by The New York Times.
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“The Obama Administration is throwing out so many conflicting messages on Libya that they are blunting any potential pressure on the Libyan regime and weakening American credibility,” it said in an editorial.
“Some way must be found to support Libya’s uprising and stop [Colonel Gaddafi] from slaughtering his people.”
Nato officials preparing for today’s summit insisted that no UN resolution was necessary for the alliance to take action to ground the Libyan air force.
“If you have [support from] the Arab League, the African Union, Nato and potentially the European Union, you have every country within 5,000 miles of Libya [and] that gives you a certain level of legitimacy,” one official told The Washington Post.
In London, experts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies said that the enforcement of a no-fly zone would not have to start with the destruction of Libya’s air defences — an act of war that the US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, has resisted fiercely.