Friday, February 25, 2011

The United States Thursday kept all options open for actions on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, including sanctions and military action, as Washington sought broad consensus on measures against the regime.
Meanwhile,  Britain urged the world to exert greater pressure on Gadhafi and the U.N. Security Council plans to meet again this week to consider action against Libyan leaders over the deadly attacks.

“I’m not ruling out bilateral options,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said when asked whether the United States was considering military steps. “I’m not ruling anything out.”
“We’re examining a lot of options. Sanctions are one of them,” he said.

When asked whether a no-fly zone is being considered he said: “”When we are examining all options, and that option has been tabled, at least in the press, but certainly has been discussed in other venues, that by exploring those options we are looking at feasibility, and I mean that broadly.” He said the situation in Libya “demands quick action.”
Obama discussed sanctions and other ideas with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and will also consult with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Sarkozy’s office said in a statement that in the face of “continuing brutal and bloody repression” in Libya, the two presidents reiterated their demand for an “immediate halt to the use of force against the civilian population.”
U.S. officials said Obama would be presented with a number of options on Libya that could include sanctions.
“We expect to take action in coming days,” State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said.

“We have a wide range of tools – financial sanctions, multilateral actions – and we’re considering all of them. The military is fully involved in these discussions and doing its own thinking about options that can be presented.”
Neither Obama nor Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has had direct contact with Gadhafi but Undersecretary of State William Burns spoke twice with Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa Wednesday, Crowley said.
“That said, in the various contacts that we’ve had with Libyan officials, they have actually passed messages to us from Mr. Gadhafi,” he added.

The U.S. has sent senior officials – including Burns, Assistant Secretary of State Jeff Feltman and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff – to the region and has said it is coordinating with regional players including the Arab League.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was against imposing sanctions on Libya because such measures would punish the Libyan people.

A rumor Gadhafi was dead pushed down oil prices that have surged due to the crisis and unrest elsewhere in the region, but a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington had no reason to believe it was true.

After being accused of reacting too slowly to the onslaught of violence against civilians and opposition demonstrators in Libya, the administration cranked up the pace of its public diplomacy. Crowley said the U.S. backed a draft resolution to suspend Libya from the rights council, and officials said it would also support other moves, including an independent inquiry into alleged human rights violations.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague also said Britain wants Libya suspended from the U.N. Human Rights Council. He urged the international community to “increase the pressure on a regime which by all accounts is now committing serious offenses.”

Meanwhile, Switzerland said Thursday it was freezing any assets Gadhafi and his family might have in the country. A spokesman for the Swiss Foreign Ministry said it was not clear if Gadhafi and parties have assets in Switzerland.
German U.N. Ambassador Peter Wittig told reporters after a closed-door meeting that the U.N. Security Council would probably hold consultations Friday.

The sole Arab member of the council, Lebanon, declined to comment on whether the fragile Beirut government would back action against Libya. “We [council members] didn’t decide yet on any action,” Lebanese Ambassador Nawaf Salam said.
The office of Sarkozy said in a statement it wanted concrete steps aimed at giving “immediate access to humanitarian aid and to impose sanctions on those responsible for violence.” – Agencies