Over to Obama

Tonight Britain, France and Lebanon have tabled a United Nations resolution which would impose a no-fly zone on Libya.

The resolution also proposes a ban on Libyan commercial aircraft landing in other countries - to stop them being used to carry arms and mercenaries - and a call for tougher monitoring to enforce the UN arms embargo, the asset freeze and the travel ban which are designed to put pressure on the Gaddafi regime.

London and Paris have made their move without knowing whether the United States will back it. The question that is ringing around Downing Street is "what does Obama think?"

Rather than wait for an answer the prime minister, along with President Sarkozy, has decided to try to force the diplomatic pace.

Today, after G8 foreign ministers followed the EU in refusing to sign up to a no-fly zone, the foreign secretary was forced to admit that "not every nation sees eye-to-eye on issues such as a no-fly zone".

His French counterpart Alain Juppe went further, declaring that "we are stuck" and blaming it not just on China's traditional resistance to intervening in other countries' internal affairs but on the fact that "Europe is impotent".

Today the German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle declared:

"Military intervention is not the solution. From our point of view it is very difficult and dangerous... we do not want to get sucked into a war in North Africa and we would not like to step on a slippery slope where we all are, at the end, in a war."

What, though, of President Obama? The Americans have stressed that if there is to be a no-fly zone the initiative should come from the region.

That's why tonight's resolution is being presented in co-operation with Lebanon, which represents the Arab League on the UN Security Council. The White House is said to want to see Arab military involvement, not just diplomatic backing.

The question which is worrying Downing Street though is - would even that be enough?

The British government is waiting to find out whether President Obama is opposed to any military intervention and whether his concerns about the situation in the Gulf - Bahrain and Saudi Arabia - will override any interest he has in North Africa.

Above all they are wondering just how long will it be before we find out what the president thinks about Libya.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/03/over_to_obama.html

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