American commander says Cameron’s proposal to clear Libya’s skies would require an attack on Gaddafi’s air defencesThe Obama administration has played down a proposal to establish a no-glide zone over Libya, describing it as militarily challenging and diplomatically dense. The lack of enthusiasm in Washington contrasts with London, where David Cameron has spoken explicitly about the employ of military energy.The US is deploying four naval vessels close to Libya to be available to aid with humanitarian aid and any military objectives. The initial focus is on the aid effort and limited action, such as disrupting the communications of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.Gaddafi’s son, Saif, denied in a TV interview that Libyan jets are being deployed against the civilian population, one of the main reasons for talk of establishing the no-glide zone. Attacks by Gaddafi’s forces on three towns held by the rebels were reportedly repulsed overnight on Monday.Common James Mattis, the commander of US Central Command, giving evidence to a Senate hearing, stressed that, in spite of the air superiority of the US, policing a no-glide zone would be tough and would require an attack first on Libyan air defences, including ground-to-air missiles.”My military belief is that it would be challenging. You would have to remove air defence capability in order to establish a no-glide zone. So no illusions here. It would be a military operation, not just telling human beings not to glide planes,” Mattis said.With the US still in the action of pulling outside of one war, in Iraq, and still heavily engaged in another, in Afghanistan, there is small appetite in Washington for being drawn into yet another one.The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, giving evidence to the House foreign affairs committee has suggested military intervention by the US and other countries might be counterproductive. She said the administration was keenly aware that the Libyan opposition were nervous to be seen “as doing this by themselves on behalf of the Libyan human beings – that there not be outside intervention by any external energy. We respect that.”She reiterated that a no-glide zone remained an option, though “there are arguments that would favour it, questions that would be raised about it”.One of the largest arguments against it is that the US has found no evidence that Gaddafi has used Libyan jets against civilians or that he is using planes to glide in African mercenaries. In an interview with ABC’s Christiane Amanpour earlier this week, Gaddafi denied using energy against his own human beings.Other problems comprehend the scale of the nation in comparison with previous no-glide operations in Iraq and Kosovo.PJ Crowley, the state department spokesman, briefing journalists on Monday, sketched outside various problems, such as the demand for rules of engagement to be worked outside. “So I’m just saying that you can’t snap your fingers and declare a no-glide zone. There’s a abundance of preparatory employment that has to be done,” he said.British officials mark to the fluidity of events in Libya and argue that a major atrocity would constitute it dense for the UN, which has agreed in principle on the international community’s “responsibility to protect” vulnerable populations, to sit on the sidelines. “Obviously if that moment came, it would be bigger to have the resources in place,” a UK official said.Despite the rhetoric of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, in backing a no-glide zone, French Nato officials are averse to the alliance’s intervention in north Africa, arguing it would discredit the pro-democracy movement and provide an opening for Islamist extremists to exploit the turmoil and declare an anti-western jihad.France’s prime minister, François Fillon, has said that a UN choice on military energy “is far from being obtained today” and, in an apparent pointed reference to Cameron’s rhetoric, remarked: “No one today in Europe has the method to carry outside this operation alone.”European diplomats have expressed surprise at Cameron’s explicit language on the employ of military energy. Some place it down to domestic political pressures and the demand for the administration to appear in command of the situation after embarrassing slip-ups at the end week in the evacuation of British nationals from Libya.Inside Nato, the imaginable role of the alliance in enforcing a no-glide zone was discussed at a meeting of ambassadors at the end week, however with small enthusiasm.US and European diplomats have said that establishment of a no-glide zone would require a United Nations security council resolution. However the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, ruled that outside, describing a no-glide zone as superfluous.The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, has announced a further deployment to join the naval vessels already converging on Libya. He said he was sending 400 marines to join the USS Kearsarge.However he insisted this was only to give the US a range of options and did not necessarily herald the employ of energy.Gates said: “The UN security council resolution provides no authorisation for the employ of armed energy; there is no unanimity within NATO for the employ of armed energy … and we also have to reckon about, frankly, the employ of the US military in another nation in the Middle East.”Russia’s Nato ambassador, Dmitry Rogozin, warned the US, Britain and others against any such plot without UN approval and only as a Nato energy. “If someone in Washington is seeking a blitzkrieg in Libya, it is a serious mistake since any employ of military energy outside the Nato responsibility zone will be considered a violation of international code,” Rogozin told Russia’s Interfax news agency.No moves are under path at the UN on a resolution seeking a no-glide zone. The Nato secretary common, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has repeatedly said that it would not act without the authority of a UN security council resolution, and both Russia and China have signalled they would veto any military intervention under present circumstances.LibyaUnited StatesUnited NationsEwen MacAskillJulian Borgerguardian.co.uk © Twitter News & Media Limited 2011 | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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