NATO to Intervene in Libyan Conflict, Enforce Arms Embargo
NATO broke a week-long deadlock over whether to intervene in the Libyan conflict, agreeing to use planes and ships to enforce the United Nations arms embargo against Muammar Qaddafi’s regime.
The trans-Atlantic alliance also said today that it has put military assets on standby to police the no-fly zone and will go into action in the skies over Libya “if needed.”
Allied warplanes and ships “will conduct operations to monitor, report and, if needed, interdict vessels suspected of carrying illegal arms or mercenaries,” North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement in Brussels.
Wrangling over the alliance’s official role in the four- day-old air campaign had exposed divisions between Italy, France, the U.K., Germany, Turkey and the U.S. over the command structure and strategy for the fight against Qaddafi.
The UN resolution that created no-fly zone also authorized what amounts to an air, land and naval blockade of Libya to prevent the resupply of Qaddafi’s forces with weapons.
To contact the reporter on this story: James G. Neuger in Brussels at jneuger@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
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