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UN resolution to impose Libya no-fly zone 'not easy,' says Hague

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, March 17, IRNA -- Foreign Secretary William Hague admitted Thursday that Britain faces strong opposition to get UN support to impose a no-fly zone and further measure on Libya.

'We are arguing urgently for a new UN resolution that would improve our ability and that of our international partners, including the Arab world, to protect and support the civilian population in Libya,' Hague said.

'I must not pretend that agreement on this will be easy,” he told MPs during a parliamentary debate on events in the Middle East and North Africa.

Britain with France presented a new resolution to the Security Council on Wednesday, despite failing to get agreement for a no-fly zone from Nato members, from EU partners and at this week's meeting of G8 foreign ministers.

Previously Hague has said that while the 'cleanest and simplest' way of securing a legal basis for a no-fly zone over Libya would be a UN Security Council resolution, it was not necessarily essential.

He told MPs that it was “right to seek authority for a combination of these measures for the people in Libya, for all those in the region campaigning for change and for Britain's national security.”

'We will do our utmost to ensure the passing of a resolution which places the maximum pressure on the Libyan regime and which extends protection to the beleaguered and oppressed civilian population of Libya,' he insisted.

The coalition government has received support from the leadership of the opposition Labour Party in its quest for a no fly zone, although many MPs of different political persuasion have expressed reservation, including some who fear that it will lead Britain into yet another war.

On Wednesday, former Conservative foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind went as far as suggested that “the best response to this urgent crisis would be for the international community, with the support of the Arab League, to urge the Egyptian Government to send a brigade of its army as a peacekeeping force into eastern Libya-to protect their own citizens, to stop Gaddafi in his tracks and to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Benghazi.”

Rifkind has also called for an 'open and urgent' supply of weapons to the rebels, to avoid repeating the 'mistake' of the Bosnian war in the 1990s, when he was defense secretary.