 US warships headed to Libya enter Suez Canal Cairo (AFP) March 2, 2011 - Two US warships carrying marines and equipment entered the Suez Canal on Wednesday en route to Libya, as the United States and Europe piled pressure on Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi. "The USS Kearsarge and the USS Ponce entered the Suez Canal from the southern entrance at 6:00 am (0400 GMT) and are making their way to the Mediterranean sea," a canal authority official said. On average it takes 12 to 14 hours for a ship to transit the canal. The Kearsarge amphibious ready group, with about 800 marines, a fleet of helicopters and medical facilities, could support humanitarian efforts as well as military operations. "We're certainly moving assets to be closer (to Libya)," a US defence official told AFP in Washington on Tuesday. "A ship like the Kearsage is capable of many types of missions." Western powers are arguing over imposing a proposed no-fly zone over Libya to support rebels fighting Kadhafi's regime. Some opposition figures in Libya have begun calling for air strikes. An American aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise -- which has fighter jets that could enforce a possible no-fly zone -- could also be called upon for the Libya crisis. The carrier is currently in the north of the Red Sea, according to the US Navy's website. |
As forces loyal to Moamer Kadhafi reportedly launched air strikes on a rebel-controlled town in eastern Libya, ambassadors from the 28-nation alliance's decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, were to discuss the Libyan upheaval at a regular meeting in Brussels, a NATO official told AFP.
The United States and Britain have raised the possibility of creating a no-fly zone to prevent Moamer Kadhafi from launching air raids against his own people, with London claiming that a UN mandate was not necessarily needed.
France however has insisted any military action would require UN backing.
"There is no unanimity within NATO for the use of armed forces," US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in Washington.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe raised concerns about how any operation would be viewed in an Arab world facing popular revolts against autocratic regimes.
"I don't know what would be the reaction on the Arab street, if Arabs around the Mediterranean saw NATO forces landing on southern Mediterranean territory," he said. "I think that could be extremely counter-productive."
Turkey, an influential NATO member with a majority Muslim population, rejected the idea of military action in Libya, saying the alliance could only intervene when one of its members is attacked.
"This would be absurd," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a visit in Germany this week, according to Anatolia news agency. "NATO has no business being there."
"We are opposed to such a scenario. Such an eventuality is unthinkable," he said.
The United States has not ruled out enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya but military brass warned this would first require bombing the Kadhafi regime's radar and missile defences.
"It wouldn't simply be telling people not to fly airplanes," said General James Mattis, head of the US Central Command.
During a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also said an aerial mission over Libya would be complicated because of humanitarian operations on the ground, a European diplomat said.
Backed by US military firepower, NATO has a vast list of assets available to undertake a complex mission.
Germany hosts a fleet of AWACS, large radar and surveillance aircraft that can monitor the skies, while US bases in Italy could serve as a staging area for operations.
The military alliance enforced a UN-mandated no-fly zone once before in Bosnia during the Balkans war in the early 1990s.
Rasmussen too has made clear that any alliance involvement in a no-fly zone in Libya would require UN approval.
Winning a UN mandate could prove difficult, with the foreign minister of Russia, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, dismissing talk of a no-fly zone as "superfluous."
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