Air force operation in Libya prepared by individual countries

BRUSSELS: An international air force operation against Libya is being prepared by individual countries. NATO will only help them with military planning and will coordinate their actions, a high-ranking military expert in Brussels told Itar-Tass on Saturday.

“Most countries share the opinion of France that an armed intervention of NATO in the Arab world would be very much undesirable. An ability to take action, using the forces of the leading European countries and the United States, with the support of some Arab countries, is coming to the forefront today. This model will actively use NATO’s potential in military planning and the coordination of actions of participants in the coalition, but officially the operation will be conducted under the command of Paris or London, and not of Brussels (the NATO Headquarters or Mons [Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe – SHAPE]),” the source said.

At the same time, forecasting a possibility of “the ground component part” of the operation, if air strikes at Libya do not make Gaddafi resign, the source did not rule out a situation, in which NATO would have to take the operation under its control. He stressed that a possibility of a ground operation was being considered, but it is still regarded as highly undesirable for all the NATO countries.