Diplomats prepare Libya resolution

The United Nations is drafting a resolution to impose a no-fly zone over Libya as the international community edges closer to military intervention in the North African country.

UK and French diplomats are working on the wording to be ready to go before the Security Council if evidence emerges that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is using air power against civilians.

The Gaddafi regime has unleashed Libyan jets against rebels trying to oust the country’s dictator after 41 years in power.

As pressure on Col Gaddafi grew, US President Barack Obama backed the contingency plans for a no-fly zone, saying military options were being considered to end the “unacceptable” violence.

Libya’s UN ambassador has also urged the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone to prevent Col Gaddafi’s forces from bombing civilians.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said yesterday that Nato was working on a range of options.

“At the UN Security Council, we are working closely with partners on a contingency basis on elements of a resolution on a no-fly zone, making clear the need for regional support, a clear trigger for such a resolution and an appropriate legal basis,” he told the Commons.

His remarks came as he was forced onto the defensive over his decision to launch a botched SAS mission to establish contact with Libyan rebels.

The Foreign Secretary, who personally authorised the move, said he took “full ministerial responsibility” for the decision to insert what he described as a “diplomatic team” into eastern Libya.

He said that the detention by the rebels of the eight-strong group – thought to include at least one MI6 officer – had been the result of a “serious misunderstanding”.

However, shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander launched a withering attack on his handling of the situation, saying that it raised “serious questions about ministers’ grip and response” to events in Libya.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the former leader of the Conservatives’ Liberal Democrat allies, said the mission had been “ill-conceived, poorly planned and embarrassingly executed”.

There were repeated airstrikes by Libyan warplanes yesterday, demonstrating the advantage Col Gaddafi holds over the rebels.

They were launched against opposition fighters regrouping at the oil port of Ras Lanouf on the Mediterranean coast.

One strike hit near a gas station in Ras Lanouf, blasting two large craters in the road and wounding at least two people in a pick up truck.

The rebels are opposed to the deployment of any Western ground troops in Libya, but are pressing for a no-fly zone to relieve them of the threat from the air

Ali Suleiman, a rebel fighter at Ras Lanouf, said the rebels could take on “the rockets and the tanks, but not Gaddafi’s air force.

“We don’t want a foreign military intervention (on the ground), but we do want a no-fly zone. We are all waiting for one.”

Arab Gulf countries also joined the calls for a no-fly zone, with the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates saying at a conference of his country’s neighbours that the UN Security Council should “shoulder its historical responsibility for protecting the Libyan people”.