You are here: Home

Gaddafi vows to fight on

: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, March 23, 2011

Adjust font size:

Who is in command?

U.S. President Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed that NATO should play an important role in enforcing the Libyan no-fly zone, the White House said.

The TV footage showed Gadhafi making a short live address to his supporters late Tuesday in a week at a balcony near the Libyan capital of Tripolibefore a crowd of supporters at his residence compound.

The TV footage showed Gadhafi is making a short live address to his supporters late Tuesday in a week at a balcony near the Libyan capital of Tripolibefore a crowd of supporters at his residence compound.

Obama expressed his hope that an international coalition would soon take over the Libya operation so that the United States would not bear all the cost during his visit to El Salvador Tuesday.

"And when this transition takes place, it is not going to be our planes that are maintaining the no-fly zone. It is not going to be our ships that are necessarily involved in enforcing the arms embargo," Obama told reporters in San Salvador, hoping that the transition was going to be accomplished in a few days instead of weeks.

"We will continue to support the efforts to protect the Libyan people, but we will not be in the lead," declared Obama.

"We're already seeing a significant reduction in the number of U.S. planes that are involved in operations over Libya," Obama said, adding that "our job was to take our unique capabilities and create a space to shape the environment so that the operation of a no-fly zone could operate effectively, and to make sure that our immediate humanitarian goals could be met."

"I think fairly shortly we are going to be able to say that we've achieved the objective of a no-fly zone," said Obama, adding that "We will also be able to say that we have averted immediate tragedy."

Italy said Monday that the leadership of the military operations in Libya should be under NATO command.

"We believe it is appropriate that NATO takes over the command of the mission" said Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa at the end of an extraordinary cabinet meeting on developments in Libya and Italy's role.

British Defense Minister Liam Fox also echoed his stance, hoping the command would be taken over by NATO "within the next few days."

China calls for ceasefire in Libya

China is once again calling for an immediate ceasefire by all relevant parties in Libya and to resolve the issue in a peaceful manner, Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu says China supports the diplomatic efforts of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the African Union and the Arab League. She stresses relevant countries should follow the objectives and principles of the UN Charter and international laws, and to respect Libya's sovereignty, independence, unification and territorial integrity.

She also voiced China's concern that the international military strikes may have caused civilian casualties.

Xinhua and Reuters contributed to the story.