Obama Bolsters Relief Effort at Libyan Border

[ProSense]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Obama said Monday that the United States was conferring with its NATO allies about potential military options to stem the bloodshed in Libya. He also said he had authorized an additional $15 million for emergency relief operations in the border regions of Libya, where tens of thousands of refugees have massed as they flee the violence.

“The violence that’s been taking place and perpetrated by the government in Libya is unacceptable,” Mr. Obama said at the White House, after a meeting with Australia’s prime minister, Julia Gillard. “I want to send a very clear message to those who are around Colonel Qaddafi. It is their choice to make how they operate moving forward and they will be held accountable for whatever violence continues to take place there.”

With calls mounting in Washington for the United States to consider imposing a “no-flight-zone” in the skies over Libya, Mr. Obama sought to keep the focus on humanitarian relief efforts. The administration, he noted, was working with the United Nations to insure there were enough aid workers on the ground in the border areas.

But Mr. Obama made clear that military options were on the table as well. “We’ve got NATO as we speak consulting in Brussels around a wide range of potential options, including potential military options, in response to the violence that continues to take place inside of Libya,” he said.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/world/africa/08president.html