London, April 15: The British government is giving mixed signals on Libya dismissing a bid to remove its dictator Muammar Gaddafi just a week ago and now calling for his ouster.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague led calls on Gaddafi to step down from power in the first meeting of the international contact group on Libya held in Qatar’s capital of Doha.
Speaking as the co-chair of the meeting, Hague underlined the need for relentless pressure on the Gaddafi regime saying the NATO forces will not ease their strikes on Libya until the regime has been toppled.
Hague also insisted that Gaddafi “must leave power so that the people of Libya can determine their own future”.
This comes as only a week ago British Foreign Office Arabic spokesman Barry Marston said London does not seek Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s removal from power.
“Targeting Muammar Gaddafi himself is not one of our military aims,” he said. “We also do not mean the military operation in Libya to lead to the removal of Gaddafi because this is not part of our military strategy.”
Marston also insisted that Britain is “not a party to the conflict in Libya and our role is limited to ensuring the security of civilians”.
Meanwhile in his address to the contact group, Hague billed the NATO strikes on Libya spearheaded by British and French forces as legally and morally justified saying they would have been “condemned for failing to protect innocent life” if they have opted for options other than military intervention.
“We should be fortified today by the knowledge that the action we are taking is necessary, it is legal and it is right,” Hague claimed.
Hague’s rhetoric of high “resolve” and “ambition” in the Libyan “undertaking” which he claimed “will have saved lives, helped Libyans choose their own future and helped restore stability in a vital part of the world at a time of great crisis” if successful, raises serious questions about his sincerity in the context of the recent high-profile defection of the Libyan Musa Kusa to Britain.
MI6 controversially helped the former Gaddafi foreign minister and intelligence chief known as his “envoy of death”, escape to Britain last month.
Shockingly enough, London did not signal a trial for the senior Libyan defector suspected of being involved in several key acts of terrorism in the UK and elsewhere, allowing him to leave for Qatar in time with the contact group meeting.
London further fueled speculations regarding its true stance on the Gaddafi dictatorship in Libya after a report by the British daily, The Sun, revealed Kusa has been offered a six month UK asylum seeker’s visa.
The British officials had earlier also held secret talks with Mohammad Ismail, a close aide to the dictator’s son Saif Gaddafi, in London apparently over a possible way out of the crisis for his father.
——–Agencies