Tag Archives: United Nations

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President Obama approves arming Libyan rebels against Gaddafi regime

President Obama approves arming Libyan rebels against Gaddafi regime

US president approved a secret document that authorized US operations in Libya to assist anti-government rebels with arms.

The document seeks for different ways to help the anti-Gaddafi protesters in Libya through arms and legal help.Though the presidential findings, which Obama approved, does not directly allows immediately giving arms to the rebels but it does pave the way for it in near future.

There has been an official statement issued from the White House declaring that the presidential findings had no comment over intelligence issues related to Libya.

The statement repeated what Barack Obama stated a day before indicating the possibilities of provision of arms to anti-government rebels in Libya to force Gaddafi step down, however it was yet not implemented as a decision.

The statement further clarified that the United States was looking over all the ways and possibilities to reach help to the opposition rebellions in Libya to avoid more killing of civilians by Gaddafi’s suppressive forces. There is a fierce debate over US decision to provide arms to the untrained rebels to fight Gaddafi supporting army in Libya.

The coalition forces including US troops enforced a no-fly zone over Libya trying to force Muammar Gaddafi to resign from his post, however, the Libyan president vowed to suppress the rebels by every mean. To confuse the international troops’ air strikes in support of rebels, Gaddafi’s forces left their tanks and started using pickup trucks and it was now difficult to differentiate troops from rebellions from air.

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United Nations expresses concern over Ivory Coast security issues

International community states the increasing anti-government protests and President Gbagbo’s supporting force in Ivory Coast have posed threat to security of the citizens. The recent political crisis in different nations in the Middle East region has induced a rebellion voice in many of the nations in the region from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen and now in Ivory Coast.

The UN expresses concern over safety of the organization’s staff’s and Ivory civilians in the current scenario.

The  international body has been severely criticized over not providing any protection to the civilians in Ivory Coast.

The international body submitted its vehicles last month and handed over to the government security officials following the abduction of two UN staffs by pro-Gbagbo civilians, however they were released later.

Also, some of the UN staffs were doubted of sharing confidential information with the pro-government security officials that included details on how to use 3 UN MI-24 helicopters. Am Ivory Coast daily, Fraternité Matin, published an article showing the details of plan to attack the protesting civilians by these helicopters. However Gbagbo’s spokesperson gave no comment over inquiry.

More than 450 civilians have been killed in Ivory Coast following the November presidential elections and last week 52 people including two of the UN employees lost their lives in the conflict with Gbagbo supporting security forces.

Head of the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast, Young-jin Choi stated that the document shared with the government authorities was just a draft however he assured to probe into the incident of leakage.

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Pro-Gaddafi security forces push protesters from western stronghold in Libya

LIbya protesters

LIbya Protesters

Pro-government security forces forced anti-Gaddafi protesters out of their stronghold—city of Misurata after high resistance of the rebellions. For a short period though, the protesters had claimed victory of Ajdabiya but now the Libyan government forces reinforced their control over the area.

According to Musa Ibrahim, government spokesman from Libya stated that Qaddafi supporting security forces were to take control over Misurata following Zawiyah, the two towns in the western part of Libya where the rebels had taken over.

The move was slow in order to avoid casualties, stated the spokesperson, whereas the rebels revealed that there were more than 10 people died while Gaddafi’s forces took control of the city from them.

The rebels fought continuously hoping for some support from the international community, but there was none. Susan E. Rice, the United States envoy to the United Nations, tried continuously for a resolution to declare Libya not only a no-flight zone but also initiate some stern steps to check the movement of Gaddafi’s forces.

Ms Rice stated that they were discussing actions that would protect the civilians there in Libya. The United States is considering going for possible measures beyond a no-fly zone. The US diplomat added that they were trying for a solution of the crisis through voting in Libya.

Meanwhile warplanes were reported bombarding over the areas off-Benghazi.

NGOs and aid organizations left the city soon after for safety.

The rebellions welcomed the initiative from the United States and the UN Security Council.

Even within the US administration, it is a strong belief that declaring Libya a no fly zone is no more an effective measure to check loyalist forces’ oppressive steps against the rebels.