Sudan hints it is willing to assist Libyan rebels
* Article
* Comments (1)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
*
*
*
*
March 30, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government suggested that it
is prepared to provide assistance to the opposition in Libya which
took arms last month in a bid to topple the regime of Muammar Gaddafi
who came to power more than 41 years ago.
JPEG - 15.1 kb
udanese foreign minister Ali Karti (Getty Images)
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) this month established a
no-fly zone (NFZ) over Libya and authorized any means necessary to
protect civilians. Since then the Western led coalition began
airstrikes on military targets using fighter jets and Tomahawk cruise
missiles.
Sudan has expressed support to the NFZ and diplomats at the UN said
that Khartoum secretly granted permission to coalition planes to use
its airspace in its operations. However, Sudanese officials denied
this report.
The Sudanese foreign minister Ali Karti told reporters in Qatar that
president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir in his talks with Emir Hamad bin
Khalifa Al-Thani that support to Darfur revolutionaries was not
discussed in their talks today.
Karti was cited by Sudan official news agency (SUNA) as saying that
support to the opposition based in Eastern Libya is of humanitarian
nature.
However, the Sudanese top diplomat said that going beyond humanitarian
assistance requires consultation with other countries.
Libyan rebels have lost ground to the military superior forces of
Gaddafi despite extensive bombing by the coalition which has targeted
air defenses, communication centers and ammunition depots. the
opposition have called on the international community to supply arms
and communication equipments to help battle government forces.
But Western nations are debating whether it is legal under the UNSC
resolution to do so and if it would pose any problems in the future.
Today U.S. officials disclosed to Reuters that president Barack Obama
has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support
for rebel forces.
Obama signed the order, known as a presidential "finding", within the
last two or three weeks, according to government sources familiar with
the matter.
Such findings are a principal form of presidential directive used to
authorize secret operations by the Central Intelligence Agency. This
is a necessary legal step before such action can take place but does
not mean that it will.
The CIA, which declined comment on the Obama authorization, has
inserted small groups of clandestine operatives to gather intelligence
for air strikes as part of a shadow force of Westerners that the
United States hopes can help bleed Gaddafi’s military, The New York
Times reported.
In addition to the CIA operatives, dozens of British special forces
and MI6 intelligence officers are also working in Libya, the newspaper
said.
People familiar with U.S. intelligence procedures said that
Presidential covert action "findings" are normally crafted to provide
broad authorization for a range of potential U.S. government actions
to support a particular covert objective.
In order for specific operations to be carried out under the
provisions of such a broad authorization — for example the delivery of
cash or weapons to anti-Gaddafi forces — the White House also would
have to give additional "permission" allowing such activities to
proceed.
Sending in weapons would arguably violate an arms embargo on Libya by
the U.N. Security Council imposed on Feb. 26, although British, U.S.
and French officials have suggested there may be a loophole.
Getting a waiver would require the agreement of all 15 council
members, which is unlikely at this stage. Diplomats say any countries
that decided to arm the rebels would be unlikely to seek formal
council approval.
U.S. officials also have said that Saudi Arabia and Qatar, whose
leaders despise Gaddafi, have indicated a willingness to supply Libyan
rebels with weapons.
BORDERS UNDER CONTROL
The Sudanese foreign minister said that shared borders with the
unrest-whacked Libya are “totally under control” and being secured to
prevent cross-border leakage of any arms or fighters, Sudan’s official
news agency SUNA reported on Wednesday, citing foreign minister Ali
Karti.
Sudan last month re-opened its borders with Libya after they remained
closed for eight month due to political tension over Gaddafi’s
harboring of rebel leader Khalil Ibrahim from the country’s western
region of Darfur, where the Sudanese government is fighting an
insurgency that broke out in 2003.
But Sudanese officials expressed concerns that opening the borders,
which was meant to allow evacuation of Sudanese citizens fleeing the
armed rebellion against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, would create a
breeding ground for the spread of arms from eastern Libya into the
hands of rebel groups in Darfur.
Sudan’s defense minister Abdul Rahim Hessian announced last month said
that a joint force from Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic
would cooperate on securing the borders with Libya in order to prevent
spillover of the unrest.
(ST)
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD
info" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
