US, allies agree on NATO role for Libya

Moscow and Washington clash over Western bombing raids in Tripoli.

WASHINGTON:

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday won British and French support for a Nato role in the air campaign against Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi as the western allies thrashed out operational details aimed at transferring US control of the mission.

Obama, lobbying hard to hand off US command of Libya operations to allies within days, telephoned British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy and all agreed that the Nato alliance would play an important role, the White House said.

But the allies have stopped short of explicitly endorsing Nato political leadership of the mission, which they fear could be a hard sell for Nato member Turkey and undercut shaky Arab support for the effort to bolster anti-Qaddafi rebels.

“What we are saying right now is that Nato will have a key role to play here,” Ben Rhodes, a senior White House national security aide, told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Obama’s personal diplomacy underscored that Nato’s command-and-control capability will make it central to the unfolding campaign against Gaddafi’s forces, which began with air strikes on Saturday aimed at protecting civilians.

Moscow and Washington clashed over Western bombing raids in Libya, with the US defence chief saying Moscow had accepted Qaddafi’s “lies” about civilian casualties.

In talks with Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev voiced dismay over what he called the “indiscriminate use of force” by coalition aircraft in Libya.

“Medvedev expressed concern about how the Security Council resolution on the no-fly zone was being implemented, and about the possibility of casualties among the civilian population in connection with the indiscriminate use of force by the aviation,” the Kremlin press service said.

In a visit dominated by events in Libya, Gates rejected Moscow’s criticism of the strikes against Qaddafi’s regime even as he predicted that the bombing would be scaled back within days.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2011.