Bharat Rakshak

By pierre tran
Published: 19 Mar 11:04 EDT (15:04 GMT)

Commercial and technical negotiations on a sale of 14 French Rafale fighter jets to Libya have been largely completed, and politics will dictate the timing of any announcement of a deal, an industry executive said March 19.
"The negotiations are done, more or less," the executive said.
Asked when a deal would be announced, the executive said, "It's politics, it's always politics."

"Negotiations are still going on with Libya," Jacques-Emmanuel Lajugie, the head of the international division of the Délégation Générale pour l'Armement (DGA), said March 17. The talks were lasting as long as expected, he said. The DGA is the French government's military procurement office.

MBDA CEO Antoine Bouvier said separately March 17 that he expected a large export sale for missiles tied to the Rafale this year or next, as well as weapons for the FREMM frigate, a new warship being built for France and Italy.

he New York Times reports:

That news [of French air strikes] came even before the Paris summit meeting adjourned, with President Nicolas Sarkozy announcing that French warplanes had begun reconnaissance missions around Benghazi, and the French military saying that a Rafale jet fighter had destroyed a government tank near there.

Even though the leaders at the Paris summit meeting were united in supporting military action, there were signs of disagreement over how it would proceed.

Two senior Western diplomats said the Paris meeting, which was organized by Mr Sarkozy, may actually have delayed allied operations to stop Colonel Gaddafi's troops as they were approaching Benghazi. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the matter.

The initial French air sorties, which were not coordinated with other countries, angered some of the countries gathered at the summit meeting, according to a senior Nato-country diplomat. Information about the movement of Gaddafi troops toward Benghazi had been clear on Friday, but France blocked any Nato agreement on airstrikes until the Paris meeting, the diplomat said, suggesting that overflights could have begun Friday night before Mr Gaddafi's troops reached the city.

African Union demands 'immediate' halt to Libya attacks

NOUAKCHOTT — The African Union's panel on Libya Sunday called for an "immediate stop" to all attacks after the United States, France and Britain launched military action against Moamer Kadhafi's forces.
...
The committee said it had been unable to get international permission to visit Tripoli on Sunday but did not elaborate.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... 493fb9a.d1

Bade wrote:What is GCC states stake in this either ? Likes of Qatar & UAE. Hard to understand.

Pranav wrote: B ji, Gaddhafi is no angel but his opponents are worse. The Gulf Arab Sheikhs hate Gaddhafi because they are poodles and he calls them poodles, which makes them look impotent in front of their own people.

Marten wrote:So how come India doesn't gain if Gaddafi falls? Shouldn't there be some party that will be even partially beneficial, given that we've been involved there for a while?

otoh, India might have a sliver of an opportunity to get hold of a few contracts if he survives?

Bade wrote:What is GCC states stake in this either ? Likes of Qatar & UAE. Hard to understand.

shyamd wrote:BJP has said that Libya is the next Iraq. Lol.

Gerard wrote:Obama Finally Has His Own War

pran wrote:The pace of evacuation of foreign nationals from Libya was an indicator that it is a grand choreography. It was given by the way UN security council voted that they had been given advance notice.

shyamd wrote:BJP has said that Libya is the next Iraq. Lol.

New Delhi: India, China and Russia Sunday opposed the Western air strikes on Libya, with Moscow demanding a dialogue to end the "bloodshed".

The Indian foreign ministry said nothing should be done that aggravates the worsening situation for the people of Libya, where a revolt erupted in February against the four-decades rule of Muammar Gaddafi.

"India views with grave concern the continuing violence, strife and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Libya. It regrets the air strikes that are taking place," a ministry statement said.

It said the Indian government hoped that the air attacks would not lead to greater harm to innocent civilians, foreigners and diplomatic missions and their personnel still in Libya.

"As stated earlier by India, the measures adopted should mitigate and not exacerbate an already difficult situation for the people of Libya."

New Delhi urged all parties "to abjure use of or the threat of use of force and to resolve their differences through peaceful means and dialogue in which the UN and regional organisations should play their roles".

Russia and China echoed similar sentiments.

Gravely concerned over "continuing violence, strife and deteriorating humanitarian situation" in Libya, India on Sunday regretted the air strikes by United States-led coalition and called upon all parties to abjure use of force and resolve their differences through peaceful means.

"India views with grave concern the continuing violence, strife and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Libya. It regrets the air strikes that are taking place. The measures adopted should mitigate and not exacerbate an already difficult situation for the people of the country," ministry of external affairs said in a statement.

"Spoke to Ambassador (M) Manimekalai in Tripoli a short while ago. She is cool and calm. Harrowing Saturday night though' with jets screaming above, she says," Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao

CAIRO—The Arab League secretary general, Amr Moussa, deplored the broad scope of the U.S.-European bombing campaign in Libya on Sunday and said he would call a new league meeting to reconsider Arab approval of the Western military intervention. Moussa said the Arab League’s approval of a no-fly zone on March 12 was based on a desire to prevent Moammar Gaddafi’s air force from attacking civilians and was not designed to embrace the intense bombing and missile attacks—including on Tripoli, the capital, and on Libyan ground forces—that have filled Arab television screens for the last two days.

“What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone,” he said in a statement on the official Middle East News Agency. “And what we want is the protection of civilians and not the shelling of more civilians.”

Moussa’s declaration suggested some of the 22 Arab League members were taken aback by what they have seen and wanted to modify their approval lest they be perceived as accepting outright Western military intervention in Libya. Although the eccentric Gaddafi is widely looked down on in the Arab world, Middle Eastern leaders and their peoples traditionally have risen up in emotional protest at the first sign of Western intervention.

shiv wrote:India has come out with a stupid soundind statement that "air stikes are regrettable". This is Indian non committal diplospeak that I have heard from the 1970s. Flippin heck!

How come India did not find Gadhafis air strikes regrettable?

Have you guys read the statement from India - a more chai biskoot statement than that is difficult to hear.

Hundreds of British SAS soldiers have been operating with rebel groups inside Libya for three weeks, the Sunday Mirror can reveal today.

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-storie ... z1HAWeIOpz

Libya Uprising Raises Crucial Questions on Rebels - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj

For now, the Libyan Islamists work shoulder to shoulder with defectors from the regime, secular intellectuals, tribal chiefs and youth campaigners, all of them united by hatred of Col. Gadhafi—and by fear of merciless reprisals should he succeed in reconquering eastern Libya.

Prominent revolutionaries at the rebel headquarters in the Benghazi courthouse include a veteran of the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union, an unveiled female professor who sports black leather jackets, and a Libyan-American who likes to discuss French wines. {i.e. either Islamists or deracinated elites}

"Everything is still fresh. What we want is democracy, and once we have parties, everyone could express themselves," says Salwa Bugaigis, a lawyer who has become a spokeswoman for the rebels. As for the Islamist component of the uprising, she adds: "As you can see, I'm unveiled, I'm modern, and they respect me. If they were al Qaeda, they wouldn't even look at me."
...

The roots of the uprising lie in the 1996 massacre of some 1,200 mostly Islamist prisoners by Col. Gadhafi's regime in Benghazi: The revolution began with the Feb. 15 detention of Fathi Terbil, a young human-rights lawyer who represented the killed prisoners' relatives.

"I want a civil government, separation for powers, a free media, and a modern state of institutions," Mr. Terbil, a member of the rebels' new provisional government, said at a recent news conference.

The rebel government's head is Col. Gadhafi's former justice minister, Mustafa Abdel Jalil—although he is rarely seen in public, in part because of the bounty offered on him by the regime.
...

"Wherever you go, it's just volunteers, and there is no management—all the managers were with Gadhafi and have now fled," said Khalifa Hassan, a fourth-year medical student who stepped in to treat the victims of Col. Gadhafi's assault in the city of Ajdabiya. "There is no coordination."

The grass-roots nature of the uprising was evident this weekend, as residents clogged the roads leading out of Benghazi, offering shelter and food to refugees fleeing Saturday's shelling and tank assault on the rebel capital.

Men at intersections thrust bottles of water and juice into passing cars; one even handed out wads of cash to every Benghazi family passing by.

Yet, it is this kind of spontaneous activism that prompted the ragtag revolutionary fighters to overextend their lines with an unprepared push into the oil town of Ras Lanuf two weeks ago, prompting Col. Gadhafi's devastating counteroffensive that ended up bringing regime troops back into Benghazi this weekend. {hardly that spontaneous - where did they get the wads of cash?}

"The youths are enthusiastic and they do not accept any fixed military plans," complained the rebels' military chief of staff, Gen. Abdel Fattah Younis, until recently Col. Gadhafi's minister of interior. "They rushed ahead, and there are consequences for that."

The cross section of young fighters who answered that call to battle could be seen at the front lines.

Mohammed al-Duraif, a self-proclaimed follower of the fundamentalist Salafi brand of Islam, unloaded boxes of ammunition from a pickup truck. "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," he proclaimed with each new box.

He handed them off to Ali Yussuf, who sported Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses and slim-fit Levis. Mr. Yussuf's inspirations in life, he said: reggae legend Bob Marley and the professional wrestler Randy Orton.

Pranav wrote:Yet, it is this kind of spontaneous activism that prompted the ragtag revolutionary fighters to overextend their lines with an unprepared push into the oil town of Ras Lanuf two weeks ago, prompting Col. Gadhafi's devastating counteroffensive that ended up bringing regime troops back into Benghazi this weekend. {hardly that spontaneous - where did they get the wads of cash?}

Pranav wrote:
Hundreds of British SAS soldiers have been operating with rebel groups inside Libya for three weeks, the Sunday Mirror can reveal today.

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-storie ... z1HAWeIOpz