U.S. to Hand Allies Libya Air-Strike Command in ‘Matter of Days’
U.S. Hand Allies Libya Air-Strike Command ‘Matter of Days'
Mario Laporta/AFP/Getty Images
A US Navy F-16 fighter jet based at Sigonella airbase on the Italian island of Sicily takes off.
A US Navy F-16 fighter jet based at Sigonella airbase on the Italian island of Sicily takes off. Photographer: Mario Laporta/AFP/Getty Images
The United States will hand off command of military operations in Libya to coalition leadership once the initial phase -- knocking out Muammar Qaddafi’s air defenses -- is completed, President Barack Obama said.
One option, having the North Atlantic Treaty Organization take charge, may be complicated by reservations from Turkey, a NATO member, reflected in remarks today by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal said his country isn’t blocking NATO command, the Associated Press reported.
Military commanders will make recommendations on when the transition takes place, Obama said at a news conference in Santiago, Chile, his second stop on a trip to Latin America to promote trade. Obama said he expects that to happen “in a matter of days, not a matter of weeks.”
“We are developing the process by which we will transition the lead from military operations to a designated headquarters,” U.S. Army General Carter Ham, who is commanding the Libyan air strike mission, said today in a briefing from Stuttgart, Germany. “This is a very complex task under the best of conditions, so my goal is to not cause disruption to the ongoing operation while we effect the headquarters transition.”
A spokesman for U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said today that NATO should take control of the operation. France’s foreign minister, Alain Juppe, said today in Brussels that “if, during the course of this operation, NATO were to be called in, yes, we would support that.”
NATO Tensions
Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said that unless NATO takes charge, Italy would “reflect” on its decision to let its bases be used for launching the attacks.
Arab League allies, who called for the no-fly zone, may not want to operate under NATO’s leadership, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at a news conference yesterday.
“The question is if there’s a way we can work out NATO’s command-and-control machinery without it being a NATO mission and without a NATO flag,” Gates said.
Turkey’s Erdogan, in a speech today in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, said a NATO operation in Libya cannot turn into an occupation, and that NATO must have a clearly defined and limited mission for any intervention there.
Limited Mandate
NATO involvement would have to be limited to “providing Libyans with the opportunity to make their own decisions” about their future, he said. Erdogan said on March 1 that NATO intervention in Libya would be “unthinkable.”
The Western alliance requires unanimous approval from its 28 member countries to launch a military operation.
The NATO diplomats said the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s top decision-making body, wasn’t able to reach agreement today, and would take up the issue again tomorrow for the fourth day in a row, according to the AP.
Six Norwegian fighter planes headed for Crete won’t be immediately deployed until command is resolved, that country’s defense minister, Grete Faremo, told Norway’s news agency.
“It is crucial that we get an effective chain of command sorted out that gives us adequate insight into the decision- making process,” Faremo said.
‘Not So Simple’
Ham said he would “not put a date certain” on the handover of command, and said a new headquarters and command institution have to be identified first. “It’s not so simple as just having a handshake someplace and saying, ‘OK, you’re now in charge,’” said the general, who leads the U.S. Africa Command.
“There are some very complex technical things that have to occur, particularly in the management, command and control of the air campaign, to make sure that, one, we have no disruption whatsoever in the ongoing operation, two, that we put none of our air crews at risk as we go through this transition to whatever that follow-on headquarters would be,” he said.
“We will accomplish that transition as expeditiously as we possibly can,” Ham said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Peter S. green in New York at psgreen@bloomberg.net; Julianna Goldman in Santiago, Chile at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net; Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
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