Aircraft have been enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya since March following the passage of UN resolution 1973.
The resolution, passed by the Security Council, permitted Nato to take “all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack” in Libya but forbid any “foreign occupation” of the country.
According to Nato the alliance has conducted 126 sorties over Libya in the last 24 hours, 46 of which were “strike sorties” in which specific targets were identified or engaged.
Among the targets attacked by Nato jets near Tripoli were three command and control facilities, nine surface to air missile launchers as well as one tank and two other armed vehicles.
But former British foreign secretary Lord David Owen said on Monday that Nato's role had come "almost to an end", telling the BBC that the West should begin to focus on how to assist a post-Gaddafi Libya.
Former British ambassador to Libya, Sir Oliver Miles, agreed Nato's mandate would run out once the "fighting stops".
“The Gaddafi regime complain that [Nato] have exceeded [their mandate] but I personally don’t believe that is true,” he said. “Their mandate, once the fighting stops, will be complete," he told the Huffington Post UK.
He added the alliance would not be able to secure another UN resolution to continue missions even if it wanted to.
“They no longer have a mandate nor they do have cats chance in hell of getting a another mandate,” he said.
Libyan charge d'affaires in London, Mahmud Nacua, said Nato had "neutralised Gaddafi's war machine" over the last few months but now their role was close to an end.
"I think their role will be over and the Libyan people will independently rebuild their country," he told reporters on Monday, adding that he believed there was no further need for the bloc's bombing campaign.
"There's no danger from Gaddafi and his heavy machines against our fighters."
It was unclear from Nacua’s comments whether he wished Nato to cease operations in Libya entirely.
But Nato’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said that the alliance will continue to police Libyan airspace for as long as necessary.
“We will continue to monitor military units and key facilities, as we have since March, and when we see any threatening moves towards the Libyan people, we will act in accordance with our UN mandate,” he said.
He added: “Now is the time for all threats against civilians to stop, as the United Nations Security Council demanded.”
Prime Minister David Cameron said Nato jets would continue to strike targets in Libya “for as long as it is needed” to protect civilians.
Much of the responsibility for policing the no-fly zone has fallen to Britain, France and the United States.
The United States has ruled out deploying any ground troops to Libya as part of facilitating the transition from Gaddafi to a new government run by the National Transitional Council (NTC).
And writing in the Daily Telegraph today the former Chief of the Defence Staff, General Lord Dannatt, warned against the West sending in large numbers of peacekeepers.
He said: "The arrival now of Western peacekeepers or aid workers in Libya would provide exactly the pretext that enabled al-Qaeda to characterise the Iraqi intervention as a western violation of Islamic space."
Origin
Source: Huffington
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