UN's 'coalition of the opposed' grows

[jakeXT]

By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

See also Welcome to the new NATO quagmire

NEW YORK - At the United Nations headquarters, signs of a brewing debate as heated as the 2003 invasion of Iraq can be found aplenty.

Parallel to the growing criticisms of the Barack Obama administration's military gambit in Libya in the US Congress, which saw the House of Representatives speaker John Boehner demand an explanation from President Barack Obama on the "contradictions" of his Libya policy, there is also a rising chorus of discontent in the UN community.

This reflects sharp divisions over UN Security Council resolution 1973 last Saturday, which established a no-fly zone in Libya and was weakened from the outset by abstentions from several key countries - Russia, China, Germany, Brazil and India.

On Wednesday, after closed-door deliberations at the Security Council, an upbeat UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon expressed the optimism that "the international coalition will have a successful operation" regarding Libya. Unfortunately, this view is not shared by a large number of UN member states, many of whom, including the 53 members of the African Union as well as many members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), including Cuba, Venezuela, India and Brazil, have openly expressed their "rejection of any form of foreign military intervention in Libya".

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MC26Ak04.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. UN coalition of opportunists grows

looks like khaddafi's losing, better hop on the gravy train