NATO Fighter Jet

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NATO Fighter Jet

United Nations Security Council on Thursday announced that it plans to end NATO’s mandate in Libya, after seven months of air strikes that led to the topple and the demise of former leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, Reuters reports. The council composed of 15 nations will convene on Thursday to vote on a resolution drafted by Britain that would end the mandate offered a few months back to set up a no-fly zone and use necessary measures to protect civilians.

If the resolution passes, it is expected that the mandate conclude on October 31. The NATO intervention on March was made possible by Resolution 1973, which allowed NATO to disable the military defense of the Libyan regime and make sure the civilian population is being protected against the attacks of the regime.

Russia criticized the resolution, and especially the provision referring to “all measures necessary,” which it said to have given the NATO the excuse to help the Libyan rebels in other ways than the no-fly zone.

When a highly-ranked officer of the French troops announced that the NATO airdropped some ammunition in the rebel camps, the frustration of the Russian simmered up, and was expressed later, when a resolution was voted on Syria, and Russia vetoed it for fear that it would lead to a military intervention against the regime in Damascus in the likeness of the one in Libya.

The resolution proposed to the United Nations to end the mandate of the NATO troops comes a day after the Libyan National Transitional Council demanded NATO to stay at least another month, some say until the end of the year.

Te Libyan NTC proclaimed last Sunday the liberation of the country from the regime of Muammar al-Qaddafi, following the demise of the former ruler of the country last Thursday, in circumstances that have not been determined with clarity, in spite of an official version of them.

Former leader’s body was buried in the desert in an undisclosed location for fear of desecration of it, after five days in which it had been exposed in a grotesque way in the city of Misrata for the public to see it.

NTC and NATO had announced that Libya would not be free until the former leader was captured and brought to justice. He was not captured and brought to justice but he was nevertheless taken out of the game, in spite of the fact that his son Seif al Islam, wanted by the International Criminal Court, is still at large.

NTC asked the Western nations on Wednesday to wait before making the decision on whether the mandate will be terminated. They also demanded that the Western military bloc assess the security situation in Libya and the possibility of securing the borders.

Western diplomats said that the borders security issue was not in the mandate NATO had from the UN in March. The resolution expected to pass in the UN Security Council on Thursday does not lift the weapons embargo that had been in place for the last months.

Russia is expected to submit a resolution draft against shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles which have been proliferating in Libya for the last few months.

The Libyan leaders fear that the situation could get out of control considering that there are many people with weapons on them from the days of the rebellion.

NTC said that the country would become a Islamic republic, with a moderate version of Islam, and that election would be staged within a year, so that a constituent assembly be elected and a constitution be drafted then. The NTC, the leaders announced, will be dissolved as soon as the government is elected and begins functioning.

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