Arab League chief Amr Mussa has called for a no-fly zone over Libya, while Libyan rebels conceded losing their hold over the key oil port of Ras Lanuf.
“I do not know how nor who will impose this zone, that remains to be seen,” Mussa said in an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel as the bloc prepared to hold key talks on the crisis yesterday.
The Arab League can also play a role, that is what I will recommend,” Mussa said.
“I am talking about a humanitarian action. It consists, with a no-fly zone, of supporting the Libyan people in their fight for freedom against a regime that is more and more disdainful,” he said.
Arab League foreign ministers were to meet in Cairo to discuss the crisis in Libya. The league’s green light is seen as key to plans to impose a no-fly zone.
In terms of which organization might be in charge of the zone, Mussa said: “That depends on the decision of the [UN] Security Council. The United Nations, the Arab League, the African Union, the Europeans — everyone should participate.”
Mussa said Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi was showing a lack of the “awareness that presidents [Zine El Abidine] Ben Ali in Tunisia and [Egypt’s] Hosni Mubarak demonstrated by resigning.”
He said he believed in a “domino effect” in revolts in the Arab world and said he expected other autocratic regimes to fall.
“This is only the beginning,” he said, adding that the situation in Yemen in particular was “extremely tense.”
“The region is on the verge of changing radically in a very short time. What we are seeing is the discovery of true democracy by the Arab world,” he said. “It’s a unique chance.”
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said yesterday that the bloc needed to judge the effectiveness of sanctions on Libya before deciding on further measures.
Ashton also told reporters ahead of an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers that she would go from Budapest to Cairo to talk to the Arab League to discuss Libya.
When asked if the EU was looking to impose further sanctions on Libya including on the vital oil and gas sector, she said: “We’ve already, as you know, done some sanctions not just on people but what we call entities.”
“And with all sanctions it’s really important that you keep looking to see how effective they would be and whether there is more you can do. So I’m trying to keep all the options moving forward to make sure that we’re thinking about all the possibilities,” she said.
EU leaders agreed on Friday to consider various options to try to force Qaddafi to step down, but stopped short of endorsing air strikes, a no-fly zone or other military-backed means.
In Libya, the top rebel official conceded that his fighters have been driven out of the key oil port of Ras Lanuf.
General Abdel-Fattah Younis was the country’s interior minister before he defected to the rebel side.
He said yesterday that Qaddafi’s forces now control both the town and the oil refinery in Ras Lanuf, but he vowed a comeback by today “at the latest.”
The rebels had maintained a tenuous hold around the oil facilities on Friday after a barrage of attacks by government forces.
The assault on Ras Lanuf was a sign the Qaddafi camp had regrouped after it first seemed to reel in confusion for the much of the uprising that began on Feb. 15.
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