New York: The UN Security Council plans on Thursday to United Nations: The UN Security Council voted
unanimously to end its mandate for international military
intervention in Libya, a week after Muammar Gaddafi was
killed, bringing to an end the bloody conflict in the country.
The council adopted a resolution to rescind its mandate
and put an end to the NATO mission in the country.
But India along with China, Russia, Germany, and Brazil
abstained from the vote in the 15-member council.
end its authorisation for a seven-month-old NATO military operation in Libya that led to the ouster and death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The plan to cancel the mandate comes despite a request from Libya`s interim government for the Security Council to wait until the National Transitional Council makes a decision on whether it wants NATO to help it secure its borders.
The 15-nation council will meet at 10:00 am EDT to vote on a British-drafted resolution, obtained by a news agency, that would terminate the UN mandate which set the no-fly zone over Libya and permitted foreign military forces to use "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians.
If the resolution is approved, as expected, the UN mandate would lapse October 31 at 11:59 pm Libyan time (5:59 pm EDT).
Although the draft resolution does not specifically refer to NATO, the alliance`s legal mandate to carry out the air strikes that enabled Libyan rebel forces to defeat Gaddafi`s troops was supplied by Security Council resolution 1973, adopted in March.
It was in March that the UNSC had adopted the Resolution
1973 to allow for military intervention to enforce a no-fly
zone in Libya after an armed uprising broke out against
Gaddafi.
"Today, in a sense we are completing a sequence which was
started by the vote of Resolution 1973 when the international
community decided to act to prevent Gaddafi from slaughtering
his own people," said Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to
the United Nations.
"During the seven months that have followed, we have seen
dramatic events where the Libyan people have succeeded to free
themselves with the support of NATO," he said.
After Gaddafi was captured and killed in his stronghold of
Sirte, effectively ending the resistance from his side, the
National Transitional Council of Libya issued a declaration of
liberation on Sunday.
In March, the council had adopted a resolution that
imposed a no-fly zone in the country`s airspace and authorised
member states "to take all necessary measures to protect
civilians under threat of attack in the country ... while
excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part
of Libyan territory."
PTI
