RAS LANUF, Libya/ CAIRO (Reuters) – Arab countries appealed to the United Nations yesterday to impose a no-fly zone on Libya as government troops backed by warplanes fought to drive rebels from remaining strongholds in western Libya.
Washington, which would play a leading role in enforcing any no-fly zone, called the declaration an “important step”; but it stopped short of commitment to any military action and made no proposal for a swift meeting of the UN Security Council.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said the League, meeting in Cairo yesterday, had decided that “serious crimes and great violations” committed by the government of Muammar Gaddafi against his people had stripped it of legitimacy.
It was not clear if the League’s call for a no-fly zone would provide the unequivocal regional endorsement NATO requires for military action to curb Gaddafi. Diplomats in New York said they could not rule out a weekend meeting of the UN Security Council to vote on the issue, but added it was unlikely.
Events on the ground are moving more quickly than international diplomacy. While the EU and Washington hesitate, Gaddafi has marshalled his forces to defy a tide of reform across the Middle East that has seen autocratic rulers in Tunisia and Egypt toppled and unprecedented protest elsewhere.
Pro-Gaddafi troops unleashed an assault on Misrata, Libya’s third city and the only rebel outpost between the capital and the eastern front around the oil town of Ras Lanuf.
“We are hearing shelling. We have no choice but to fight,” rebel spokesman Gemal said by telephone from Misrata. “I can hear loud explosions,” said a resident who would only give his name as Mohammad. “Everybody is rushing home, the shops have closed and the rebels are taking up positions.”
Mussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman in Tripoli, could neither confirm nor deny a military operation was under way.
