Libya Declares Immediate Ceasefire After UN No-Fly Resolution
Libyans celebrate in Benghazi. Photographer: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images
March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Libya said it is ceasing all military action and will start talks with rebels, reacting the day after a United Nations vote cleared the way for strikes against leader Muammar Qaddafi’s regime. Bloomberg's Lara Setrakian reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Muammar Qaddafi’s troops outside the rebel base of Benghazi may face air strikes from the U.S., France and other allies after the United Nations Security Council authorized the use of force against the Arab regime. The council’s resolution, approved yesterday 10-0 with five abstentions, allows “all necessary measures” to protect civilians. Bloomberg's Hans Nichols reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe raises his hand as the United Nations Security Council voted on a Libya resolution calling for a no-fly zone and "all necessary measures" against forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi at U.N. headquarters in New York. Photographer: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images
Libya said it is ceasing all military action and will start talks with rebels, reacting the day after a United Nations vote allowed strikes against leader Muammar Qaddafi’s regime.
Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa made the announcement in a televised news conference carried by Al Arabiya TV today, adding that the UN resolution authorizing a no-fly zone violates the UN’s charter.
British and French leaders began preparing for possible air strikes against Libya after a UN Security Council vote cleared the way for the first Western military action against an Arab country since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
“Let’s remain very careful on these kinds of announcements,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in response to the cease-fire statement.
Crude oil retreated after the Libyan response to the UN vote, dropping more than $2 a barrel from the day’s highs. Crude oil for April delivery slipped 55 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $100.87 a barrel at 9:47 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Prime Minister David Cameron earlier said the U.K. would “in the coming hours” deploy Tornado and Typhoon warplanes, air-to-air refueling craft and surveillance aircraft to enforce the UN’s no-fly zone aimed at Qaddafi.
Leaders across the Middle East are struggling to suppress a renewed surge in unrest, as Arab nations backed the no-fly zone and countries including Qatar indicated they’d participate in the enforcement of the UN resolution.
Saudi Measures
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah ordered sweeping increases in government spending, including $67 billion on housing, to prevent protests in his kingdom from gathering pace. The move came three days after Saudi forces entered Bahrain to stifle demonstrations in the mostly Shiite country. In Yemen, security forces fired on protesters in Sana’a in the most violent crackdown yet during two months of political unrest.
Qaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, signaled after the UN resolution that government troops won’t try to enter the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, though they will encircle it, backing away from earlier threats, Agence France-Presse reported. Qaddafi had said he’d “destroy” the opposition movement, recapture Benghazi, a city of 1 million people, and show “no mercy” to “traitors” who don’t surrender.
Forces loyal to Qaddafi shelled the city of Misrata even after the cease-fire announcement, Al Jazeera television reported, citing witnesses. Twenty five people have been killed there today, the Qatar-based channel said, citing medical staff.
‘Smart’ Tactics
The cease-fire announcement “is a smart tactical move to change the question from helping the rebels to that of regime change,” said Jan Techau, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Brussels and a former analyst at the NATO Defense College in Rome and the German Defense Ministry.
“Qaddafi’s testing the determination of the West to see if Obama, Sarkozy and Cameron really mean what they say when they demand his removal,” Techau said in a telephone interview.
Cameron told Parliament in London that the UN resolution falls short of giving the authority for regime change in Libya, saying “we have to restrict ourselves” even though “almost every leader has actually said the Qaddafi regime has to go.”
Libya’s announcement is “a big if,” European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.
‘Regime Should End’
“Everybody will be examining that very carefully,” Ashton told reporters in Brussels. “The universal view is that Qaddafi should go, the regime should end.”
Cameron said there will be a statement later today “setting out what we now expect from Colonel Qaddafi.” He said he’ll attend a meeting in Paris tomorrow hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy with the Arab League.
The UN’s principal policy-making panel voted 10 to 0, with five abstentions, to adopt a resolution that establishes a no- fly zone over Libya, demands a cease-fire and allows “all necessary measures” to protect civilians “excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory.”
President Barack Obama called Cameron and Sarkozy last night to discuss enacting the resolution, the White House said in a statement. The three agreed to work closely with Arab and other international partners on enforcing the terms of the resolution and called for an end to the violence against civilians in Libya, the White House said.
U.S. Ships
The U.S. ordered 400 Marines and two Navy vessels, including the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge, to the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said March 1. At the time, he said the ships were sent to help with evacuations and for humanitarian relief.
Several destroyers and submarines in the Mediterranean are “available for tasking as required,” Admiral Gary Roughead, the Pentagon’s chief of naval operations, told a Senate subcommittee on March 16.
NATO agreed to speed up military planning to support a no- fly zone, enforce the UN-mandated arms embargo and provide humanitarian aid. It stopped short of acting on those preparations.
The trans-Atlantic alliance operates a fleet of AWACS surveillance planes that could help monitor the skies over Libya and has a naval taskforce in the Mediterranean Sea that could enforce a blockade of Libya’s ports.
Italian Bases
Italian newspapers, including Corriere della Sera, reported today that the government would make three bases available to support a no-fly zone -- Sigonella and Trapani Birgi in Sicily and Gioia del Colle near the southern city of Bari.
At Sigonella, one of the closest NATO bases to Libya, about 340 miles (547 kilometers) from Tripoli and 465 miles from Benghazi, the U.S. Navy has its own installation. It is the “primary logistical support element for the U.S. Sixth Fleet operations,” according to the website of the U.S. base.
Denmark has committed to sending six F-16 fighter planes to help back the no-fly zone, Copenhagen-based newswire Ritzau reported, citing Defense Minister Gitte Lillelund Bech. Canada will deploy six CF-18 fighter jets, Postmedia News reported, citing unnamed sources.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he will seek Parliament’s approval to deploy air and naval forces to back the UN resolution on Libya, and will cede bases in Spain to back the operation. He spoke in Madrid today.
Qatar plans to take part in the mission to protect Libyan civilians under the UN resolution, the state-run Qatar News Agency reported today citing a government spokesman.
Turkey, a majority-Muslim member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, does not support military intervention in Libya “for the moment,” said Selcuk Unal, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.
NATO member Germany said it wouldn’t join any intervention. “German soldiers won’t take part in a military mission in Libya,” Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said.
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