There were signs on Tuesday that behind the show of public unity cracks were developing within NATO over its military strategy in Libya, as Britain and France suggested that other allies were not doing enough.
At a meeting of the European Union Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and his French counterpart Alain Juppe urged their NATO allies to intensify the bombing campaign in Libya arguing that more needed to be done to protect civilians.
Highlighting Britain's increased contribution to the military operations, Mr. Hague said it would be “welcome” if other countries also stepped up to the plate.
“We must maintain and intensify our efforts in NATO. That is why the United Kingdom has in the last weeks supplied additional aircraft capable of striking ground targets threatening the civilian population. Of course it would be welcome if other countries also did the same,” he said.
“Not enough”
Mr. Juppe was more vocal in voicing his disappointment describing NATO efforts as “not enough”.
“NATO must play its role fully. It wanted to take the lead in operations…It must play its role today which means preventing Qadhafi from using heavy weapons to shell [civilian] populations,” he said.
NATO responded by saying that in determining the intensity of the campaign it was guided by the U.N. mandate.
“NATO is conducting its military operations in Libya with vigour within the current mandate,” the BBC reported the alliance as saying.
The fissures came as, in a surprising development, Libya's former Foreign Minister, Moussa Koussa, who was claimed to have defected to Britain when he arrived here on March 30 abruptly left for Qatar on Tuesday sparking speculation that he might be involved in brokering a peace deal. The Foreign Office said he was “a free individual, who can travel to and from the U.K. as he wishes” even as one ruling Conservative party MP criticised the decision to allow him to go saying Britain was “being used as a transit lounge for alleged war criminals”.
