Britain sending more warplanes to Libya
Jul 15, 2011
Britain said on Friday it will send four more Tornado warplanes to support the NATO mission in Libya, in addition to the 12 already deployed.
By Agencies
Britain said on Friday it will send four more Tornado warplanes to support the NATO mission in Libya, in addition to the 12 already deployed.
"These are the aircraft which are particularly well equipped for surveillance and reconnaissance, and as the conflict has gone on and the targets have become harder to detect it is important to have this capability available," Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt told Reuters on the sidelines of an international Libya contact group meeting in Istanbul.
"They have the capability to launch airstrikes," he said.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called on Thursday for members of the alliance to provide more aircraft to bomb Muammar Gaddafi's forces in order to protect Libyan civilians and enforce a no-fly zone.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is meeting Nato and Arab diplomats in Turkey to seek a solution to the crisis in Libya.
The gathering of the Libya Contact Group, the fourth since March, will also discuss aid to the rebels.
The group of 15 includes UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, Italy's Franco Frattini, and Alain Juppe of France.
Juppe has this week been talking up prospects of a political solution based on contacts with Col Muammar Gaddafi.
France played a key role in launching Nato-led strikes in Libya, under a UN-mandated mission to protect civilians.
Military action against Muammar Gaddafi's regime will be intensifed while a U.N. envoy presses for negotiations to end the civil war in Libya, Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Friday.
Hague said the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy to Libya, Abdul Elah Al-Khatib, would be authorised to present terms for Gaddafi to leave power.
"He has taken a central role in this contact group meeting and we see him as the channel for negotiations and for political settlement, while the military pressure on the regime will continue to intensify," Hague said in an interview with Reuters during an international Libya contact group meeting in Istanbul.
Britain said on Friday it will send four more Tornado warplanes to support the NATO mission in Libya, in addition to the 12 already deployed.
"These are the aircraft which are particularly well equipped for surveillance and reconnaissance, and as the conflict has gone on and the targets have become harder to detect it is important to have this capability available," Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt told Reuters on the sidelines of an international Libya contact group meeting in Istanbul.
"They have the capability to launch airstrikes," he said.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called on Thursday for members of the alliance to provide more aircraft to bomb Muammar Gaddafi's forces in order to protect Libyan civilians and enforce a no-fly zone.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is meeting Nato and Arab diplomats in Turkey to seek a solution to the crisis in Libya.
The gathering of the Libya Contact Group, the fourth since March, will also discuss aid to the rebels.
The group of 15 includes UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, Italy's Franco Frattini, and Alain Juppe of France.
Juppe has this week been talking up prospects of a political solution based on contacts with Col Muammar Gaddafi.
France played a key role in launching Nato-led strikes in Libya, under a UN-mandated mission to protect civilians.
Military action against Muammar Gaddafi's regime will be intensifed while a U.N. envoy presses for negotiations to end the civil war in Libya, Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Friday.
Hague said the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy to Libya, Abdul Elah Al-Khatib, would be authorised to present terms for Gaddafi to leave power.
"He has taken a central role in this contact group meeting and we see him as the channel for negotiations and for political settlement, while the military pressure on the regime will continue to intensify," Hague said in an interview with Reuters during an international Libya contact group meeting in Istanbul.