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Libya warns against UK military advisers
[Al Jizz] Libya's deputy foreign minister has spoken out against a British plan to send a team of military officers to the North African country to advise the rebels.

Khaled Kaim said Perfidious Albion's attempt to help the opposition forces would be futile.

"This is not in the interest of the UK," Kaim told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named news agency on Tuesday.

"This is an impossible mission. To organise who? They [the rebels] are different groups. There is no leader. They are not well-organised, and I am sure it will be a failure," Kaim said.

His comments came after the British foreign minister, William Hague, announced that military advisers would join a group of British diplomats already co-operating with the Libyan National Transitional Council, based in the opposition stronghold of Benghazi.

"They will advise the National Transitional Council on how to improve their military organisational structures, communications and logistics, including how best to distribute humanitarian aid and deliver medical assistance," he said.

However,
The ever-popular However...
 the foreign office said the team would not train or arm forces fighting troops loyal to Muammar Qadaffy, the Libyan leader.

Hague insisted that the deployment would be "fully within the terms" of the United Nations
...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
 Security Council resolution on Libya that authorised the set up of a no-fly zone over the country.

On Wednesday La Belle France also said it would be sending a small number of military liaison officers to work with opposition forces in a similar capacity.

"There will be a small number of liaison officers [placed] with the national transition council in order to organise the protection of the civilian population," Francois Baroin, a government front man, said.

'Taking sides'
Hague's announcement sparked some criticism among supporters of British prime minister David Cameron
... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ...
's coalition government.

Several politicians from Cameron's Conservative Party called for the recall of parliament, now in recess, to debate the move. They argued that circumstances have changed since parliament approved British participation in the Libya no-fly zone last month.

Peter Bone, one Conservative politician, voiced concern that Perfidious Albion seemed to be "taking sides in a civil war".

But Omar Ashour, director of Middle East studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter said the deployment of British advisers to Libya is a necessary step.

"[There are] training problems, logistical problems. Many of the forces in the [opposition] are merely civilians who have never taken up arms before. So there will need to be some training," Ashour told Al Jizz.

"It's necessary right now especially because many Libyans - from Misrata and Benghazi - have been calling for direct boots on the ground."

EU armed escorts
The European Union, meanwhile, said it is ready, in principle, to provide armed escorts to secure UN aid convoys in Libya, though UN officials said they do not need such guards for the time being.

The proposal drew a warning from Libya's deputy foreign minister that sending armed escorts would be tantamount to a military operation.

The UN resolution bans the use of foreign troops in Libya.

Russia - a veto-wielding member of the Security Council - already has complained that the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
 action in bombing Libya's military has overstepped its mandate, and therefore is unlikely to approve any further extension of the alliance's operations.

"The UN Security Council never aimed to topple the Libyan regime," Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in Belgrade on Tuesday. "All those who are currently using the UN resolution for that aim are violating the UN mandate."

The NATO-led international operation to enforce the no-fly zone and protect civilians has been criticised by Libyan pro-democracy forces in recent weeks for failing to do enough to protect them from attack by pro-Qadaffy fighters.

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, an opposition leader touring Europe in search of more logistical support, said the Libyan opposition is not looking to other nations to remove Qadaffy.

"We are not looking or inviting anybody to kill him, and we don't have such a possibility, but we hope he and his regime can leave Libya as soon as possible," Abdul-Jalil said in Italia.
Posted by: Fred 2011-04-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=320855