Tripoli, March 03: Domestic and international opposition to any form of military intervention in crisis-hit Libya has grown as two US warships bound for the North African country enter the Suez Canal.
Speaking to a group of journalists in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said no Libyan opposition group is demanding foreign military intervention on their behalf.
“We are opposed to foreign intervention because Libyans are against it,” added the Turkish foreign minister about interference in a revolution against Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
Foreign countries should refrain from military intervention in Libya as opponents of Gaddafi’s rule do not want such interference, Davutoglu noted.
Turkey, an influential NATO member, rejected the idea of military action, saying the alliance could only intervene when one of its members is attacked.
“This would be absurd,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a visit to Germany this week, according to Anatolia news agency. “NATO has no business being there.”
In a Wednesday meeting in the Egyptian capital Cairo, the 22-member Arab League diplomats discussed the crisis in Libya on Wednesday, where all members expressed opposition to foreign military intervention in the North African country.
Iran has also warned the West against any military intervention in troubled Libya, saying Western countries should not take advantage of the popular movement in the North African country to turn Libya into a military base.
Venezuela’s United Nations Ambassador, Jorge Valero, has also criticized countries seeking the use of military force in Libya.
Valero said countries advocating military intervention are not trying to defend human rights, but to establish a protectorate to seize one of the most important oil and energy sources in the Middle East.
At a Wednesday meeting of ambassadors of the 28-nation NATO alliance in Brussels, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe warned that military action could turn Arabs against Europe, insisting that any operation, including policing Libya’s skies, would first need approval from the United Nations.
As US warships entered the Mediterranean Wednesday, NATO allies were divided on whether to use military might in Libya.
The United States and Britain have raised the possibility of creating a no-fly zone to prevent Gaddafi from launching air raids on his people, with London claiming that a UN mandate was not necessarily needed.
The two vessels, the USS Kearsarge and the USS Ponce, entered the Suez Canal on Wednesday on the way to the Mediterranean and were expected to exit the canal later on the day.
On Monday, the USS Barry, a destroyer, moved through the Suez Canal and was now in the southwestern Mediterranean.
Tension is high in Libya as forces loyal to the embattled ruler keep suppressing the anti-government protests as more cities fall under the demonstrators’ control.
Rights groups say at least 6,000 people have so far been killed in Libya due to a brutal crackdown by the Gaddafi-regime forces on protesters.
——–Agencies