Commentary : Take all other steps to force Gaddafi out

As international leaders in their London meeting on Tuesday tried to work out a strategy to support the opposition in Libya which is up in arms to end the 41-year old dictatorial regime of Col. Muammar Gaddafi, suspicion about the presence of Al-Qaeda elements in the opposition fold also ran high creating misgivings as to whether by arming the opposition they would create a bigger enemy.

UK yesterday expelled five Libyan diplomats for intimidating opposition supporters. Officials said the diplomats loyal to Muammar Gaddafi were involved in attempts to harass supporters of the opposition in Britain.

British Prime Minister David Cameron at Tuesday’s meeting accused the Libyan leader of shooting and starving his opponents into submission. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Arab League, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen and up to 40 foreign ministers attended the talks, seeking to ratchet up the pressure on Gaddafi to quit.

President Obama pledged on Monday that he would not commit American ground troops to Libya and said that the job of trans forming the country into a democracy was primarily for the Libyan people and the international community. But he promised that the United States would help the rebels in this struggle.

In London, Hillary Clinton and other Western leaders made it clear that the NATO-led operation would end only with the removal of Colonel Gaddafi, even if that was not the stated goal of the United Nations resolution. [Read More]

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Source: The New Nation - Independent Daily