Allied leaders comment on NATO Impasse

NATO

From the Telegraph: [U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert] Gates said governments were discussing how best to organise the military command of the operation, with Arab states reluctant to have a Nato flag over the intervention.  

"I think there is a sensitivity on the part of the Arab League to being seen to be operating under a Nato umbrella. And so the question is, if there’s a way we can work out Nato’s command and control machinery without it being a Nato mission and without a Nato flag and so on," he said.
 
From DPA: “I hope that we will now fold into NATO command and control, but it’s not a NATO mission,” Defence Minister Liam Fox told the BBC. “It is still a UN coalition of the willing nations who want to defend the Libyan people, but we will co-ordinate it hopefully through the command and control structures that NATO already has.”
 
“I hope it will happen in the next few days,” he added. “It’s all dependent upon getting agreement from all the NATO nations.”
 
From DPA:  Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said a decision on the structure of military command was needed “very quickly.”
 
“It would be a very bad signal if it is the coalition now, and then if things turn bad we move over to NATO. We need to decide now who does what, because this game between the coalition and NATO is damaging to the entire international community,” he said.
 
From CTK: The Czech Republic will support NATO´s joining the military operation in Libya, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said on Czech Television today, adding that NATO should supervise the operation.
 
The Czech Republic will probably not join the operation for now, Schwarzenberg (TOP 09) said but he did not rule out possible deployment of a chemical warfare unit. ..
 
"I´d like the operation to take place in the framework and also under supervision of NATO," Schwarzenberg said.  (photo: NATO)
 
 

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