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From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Sat Apr 16 2011 - 00:21:45 EDT
Libya: Italy rejects calls to join ground attack operations Splits in the
international coalition on Libya widened on Friday as Italy flatly rejected
calls to contribute air power to the mission targeting Colonel Muammar
Gaddafi's forces.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8454507/Libya-Italy-rejects-calls-to-join-ground-attack-operations.html
By Damien McElroy <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/Damien_McElroy/>,
Cairo and James Kirkup 6:31PM BST 15 Apr 2011
Amid growing fears of a military stalemate in Libya, Britain and France have
exhorted other Nato members including Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, to
provide warplanes and other "strike assets".
Only Canada, Norway, Denmark and Belgium are supporting the Anglo-French
ground attack operations, which Nato estimates is at least ten warplanes
short of what is required.
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, claimed to be making "a bit of
progress", and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato Secretary General said he was
"hopeful" that other members will do more. But a Nato ministers' meeting in
Berlin ended on Friday night without any firm commitments of new
deployments.
Spain on Thursday rejected requests to do more, and yesterday Italy said it
would not go beyond allowing Britain and France to use Italian airbases.
"We have done enough," said Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister.
"An engagement that goes beyond our current commitment would not make
sense."
Mr Berlusconi was speaking after it emerged that ENI, the Italian oil
company, was preparing to ship oil from Gaddafi-controlled terminals for the
first time since air strikes began.
Germany meanwhile warned that the military action ran a "big risk" that a
crippled, divided Libya would become a failed state on the doorstep of
Europe. "The fact is there is a big risk that this military operation gets
stuck in the sand somewhere and at the end of the day Libya turns into a
failing state and Gaddafi is still in control of quite a chunk of that
failing state," said Werner Hoyer, the deputy foreign minister. "That would
be a nightmare."
Canada also said that it could not consider increasing its military
contribution to the mission until after its general election next month.
There was also growing criticism on Friday over signals that Britain, France
and the US would continue the military mission until Col Gaddafi was ousted.
That has led to allegations that the allies are overstepping the authority
of United Nations Security Council resolution 1973, which last month
authorised military action to protect Libyan civilians from Col Gaddafi's
forces.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, attended the Nato summit and
warned that the current military strikes "in many cases go beyond the
framework set by the Security Council".
Nato's refusal to target the Libyan leadership directly has allowed Col
Gaddafi, his family and lieutenants to re-emerge in public after
disappearing in the early weeks of the bombing campaign.
In a display of defiance, Aisha Gaddafi, the dictator's only daughter, took
to the ramparts of a house destroyed by America's 1986 air raid to scorn the
pressure that is being put on the Libyan regime. "Leave our skies with your
bombs," she said. "You want to kill my father, pretending to protect
civilians. To speak of Gaddafi's resignation is a humiliation for all
Libyans."
Gaddafi's forces yesterday launched more heavy bombardments on the
rebel-held western town of Misurata, now in its seventh week of siege.
Nearly 1,200 Asian and African migrants, many in bad shape after weeks with
little food or water, left the town on Friday on a ship for Benghazi, the
rebel capital.
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