USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Libyan New Leaders Beg: America & NATO, please don't GO

And this is supposed to be a free Libya?

 

In a message dated 10/26/2011 10:00:47 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, awofeso@mwebafrica.com writes:

America & NATO, please don't' go" ……Transitional Council of Libya pleads

NATO should stay involved in Libya until the end of this year to help prevent loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi from leaving the country, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the interim leader, has said.

NATO, whose air attacks backed National Transitional Council (NTC) forces that overthrew Gaddafi in August, is to decide on Friday whether to end its mission after his death and burial in the past week and a liberation declaration by the NTC.

"We look forward to NATO continuing its operations until the end of the year," Jalil said at a conference in Doha on Wednesday. Stating that stopping the flight of Gaddafi supporters to other countries was a priority, he said: "We seek technical and logistics help from neighbouring and friendly countries."

Qatar was one of the first countries to recognise the NTC as the legitimate authority in Libya and supplied the anti-Gaddafi forces with water, weapons and more than $400m in aid.

On Wednesday, for the first time, Qatar revealed that hundreds of its soldiers had also joined Libyan rebel forces on the ground as they battled Gaddafi roops, the AFP news agency reported.

"We were among them and the numbers of Qataris on the ground were hundreds in every region," said Qatari chief of staff Major General Hamad bin Ali Al-Atiya.

The United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Sweden also joined in the NATO war effort.

The meeting in the Qatari capital is expected to fo cus on how the allies could help the new authorities bring stability to the nation.

Preliminary decision

In Brussels on Wednesday, a NATO official said the alliance had postponed until Friday a meeting of its ambassadors which had been set for Wednesday and was expected to formalise a decision to end its Libya mission.

"The Libya discussion has been moved to Friday to accommodate the ongoing consultations with the United Nations and the National Transitional Council," the NATO official said.

NATO states took a preliminary decision last Friday to wind up the mission in Libya on October 31, and the commander of the operation said on Tuesday that the alliance believed NTC forces would be capable of handing security threats.

But Ali Tarhouni, Libya's interim oil and finance minister, said on Tuesday he wanted NATO to maintain its mission for another month.

NATO's 26,000 sorties, including 9,600 strike missions, destroyed about 5,900 military targets since they started on March 31.

These included Libya's air defences and more than 1,000 tanks, vehicles and guns, as well as Gaddafi's command-and-control networks.

The daily air raids enabled NTC forces to advance and take Tripoli two months ago.

The announcement marks the first time that Qatar has acknowledged it had military boots on the ground in Libya.

On Sunday, Libya's interim rulers declared the country liberated, launching the oil-rich nation on what is meant to be a two-year transition to democracy.

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