US, UK, France to fight until Gaddafi goes
David Cameron, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to fight on until Colonel Gaddafi is ousted, Kazakhstan Today reports.
Almaty. April 15. Kazakhstan Today - David Cameron, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to fight on until Colonel Gaddafi is ousted, Kazakhstan Today reports.
The United States, Britain and France are pledging to keep up the military campaign in Libya until leader Muammar Gaddafi is gone, couriermail.com.
In a joint declaration, US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said they will not stop the campaign and will "remain united".
Writing in a newspaper opinion piece, the three leaders said their mandate under a United Nations Security Council resolution was to protect civilians in Libya.
The declaration will be published in Friday's editions of the International Herald Tribune, Le Figaro and the Times of London.
The joint piece comes as French and British officials have been calling for more strikes by their NATO allies against Gaddafi forces.
The carefully worded declaration denounces Gaddafi and says: "It is impossible to imagine a future for Libya with Gaddafi in power."
"So long as Gaddafi is in power, NATO must maintain its operations so that civilians remain protected and the pressure on the regime builds," the three leaders wrote.
They say Gaddafi must leave "definitively".
If he doesn't, they warn, his opponents would face vicious reprisals and the country could become a haven for extremists.
"It is unthinkable that someone who has tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their future government," the article said.
"The brave citizens of those towns that have held out against forces that have been mercilessly targeting them would face a fearful vengeance if the world accepted such an arrangement. It would be an unconscionable betrayal," the leaders argued.
The publication of the article underlined US commitment to the UN-mandated operation against Gaddafi's forces, easing earlier tensions between members of the Western alliance.
"Britain, France and the United States will not rest until the UN Security Council resolutions have been implemented and the Libyan people can choose their own future," they promised.
A failure to unseat Gaddafi "would condemn Libya to being not only a pariah state, but a failed state too", the three men warned.
The letter was originally drafted by Cameron and Sarkozy following their meeting in Paris on Wednesday, but Obama asked to have his name added to the article after he was sent a courtesy copy.
Britain and France on Wednesday agreed to step up military pressure on Gaddafi's regime after world powers meeting in Doha promised Libya's rebels cash and the means to defend themselves.
Looking to a post-Gaddafi future, the leaders said they were "convinced that better times lie ahead for the people of Libya".
After Gaddafi leaves, the three men predicted "a genuine transition from dictatorship to an inclusive constitutional process, led by a new generation of leaders.
"For that transition to succeed, Gaddafi must go, and go for good," they concluded.
Meanwhile, Gaddafi toured the streets of Tripoli on Thursday as NATO warplanes carried out a series of air raids that rocked the Libyan capital.
In an open-top 4x4 wearing dark glasses and a hunting hat, Gaddafi hailed bystanders as he put on a show of defiance.
Photo: the Daily Mail
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