In These New Times

This is very interesting: the TNC’s request for a continuation of the NATO operation has been declined. They didn’t make it for nothing. They know how vulnerable they are without NATO air and ground support. The ground support will continue courtesy of Qatar and Blackwater but without air strikes the advantage swings to the green resistance. NATO have extricated themselves from a disastrous campaign and left the TNC twisting in the wind. This is the “victory”.

New York Times

27th October, 2011

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday for an Oct. 31 end to its authorization of foreign military intervention in Libya, the legal basis for NATO attacks on Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces during the 8-month civil war that toppled him from power.

The council’s action, a week after Colonel Qaddafi was killed as he sought to escape his final refuge in Surt, his hometown, was not unexpected. But it came despite new worries in Libya that the remnants of Colonel Qaddafi’s loyalists may not be totally vanquished, and that they may regroup outside Libya’s borders and cause new trouble in the months ahead.

Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the leader of the interim Libyan government, said on Wednesday that he had asked NATO to extend its operations in Libya through year’s end, partly over concerns about leftover Qaddafi loyalists.

But NATO ministers,  scheduled to meet on Friday at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, are expected to officially declare Oct. 31 as their final day of action in Libya, in accordance with the Security Council’s action.

“Tomorrow we will confirm and formalize that decision,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO Secretary-General, told reporters in Berlin after a visit with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. He called the operation “probably one of the most successful missions in the history of NATO.”

Mr. Rasmussen did not rule out a possible NATO role in Libya in the future. “If requested, we can assist the new Libyan government in the transformation to democracy, for instance with defense and security sector reform,” he said. “But I wouldn’t expect new tasks beyond that.”

The Security Council vote, seen in streaming video on the United Nations Web site, was conducted swiftly without discussion, reflecting a view that after Colonel Qaddafi’s demise and Mr. Abdel-Jalil’s proclamation of victory last Sunday in a national celebration, there was no need for further intervention.

The council had authorized imposition of a no-flight zone over Libya and military action to protect Libyan civilians in a resolution passed on March 17. At that time, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces were threatening to annihilate Libyans who were challenging his 42-year grip on power, inspired by the uprisings that had felled Arab autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt.

NATO used that resolution as justification for bombing attacks on Colonel Qaddafi’s forces — attacks that are widely credited with helping the disparate coalition of Libyan rebels to eventually oust him.

William Hague, the foreign secretary of Britain, which along with France and the United States furnished the core of NATO’s Libyan operation, said in a statement that the Security Council’s move on Thursday was “another significant milestone toward a peaceful, democratic future for Libya.” He added, “Ending the no-fly zone and the civilian protection provisions demonstrates that Libya has entered a new era.”

Despite the post-Qaddafi euphoria in Libya, the interim government has been criticzed over the ways that Colonel Qaddafi, one of his sons, Muatassim, and his former defense minister died. All were apparently killed while in the custody of anti-Qaddafi fighters who had besieged Surt. Cellphone video images of Colonel Qaddafi and his son while in captivity, circulated on the Internet, strongly suggest that the men were executed.

There has been no official word on the whereabouts of Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, his father’s one-time heir apparent and the only remaining Qaddafi son still unaccounted for. He has become a focal point of rumor and speculation.

Unconfirmed news accounts from Libya and Niger have said that both Seif al-Islam and Colonel Qaddafi’s former intelligence minister and brother-in-law, Abdullah al-Sanousi, have sought refuge in neighboring Mali and may be under the protection of Tuareg tribesmen there who had good relations with the Qaddafi family.

Another uncorroborated account in Beeld, an Afrikaans-language South African newspaper, said that Seif al-Islam may be traveling under the protection of South African mercenaries, Agence France-Presse reported.

A third account by Reuters, also uncorroborated, said that Seif al-Islam, fearing for his life if captured, was seeking to arrange for an aircraft to extricate him from a desert hideout and deliver him into the custody of the International Criminal Court at the Hague. The court issued arrest warrants for him, his father and Mr. Sanousi in May in connection with charges of organizing systematic attacks on civilians.