LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron insisted Thursday that NATO isn’t edging toward the deployment of ground troops in Libya — despite the decision by several European nations to send military staff to assist rebel forces.
Italy, France and Britain are sending experienced combat advisers to help train and organize Libya’s opposition forces as they struggle to loosen Moammar Gadhafi’s grip on power.
Ministers have insisted the officers won’t play any role in offensives against Gadhafi’s troops — and have repeatedly said NATO and allies won’t overstep boundaries set out in the United Nations resolution authorizing action in Libya.
“The U.N. Security Council does limit us. We’re not allowed, rightly, to have an invading army, or an occupying army,” Cameron told BBC Scotland radio. “That’s not what we want, that’s not what the Libyans want, that’s not what the world wants.”
Liam Fox, Britain’s defense secretary, appeared to have raised the prospect of a greater role for international troops by comparing the conflict with international action in Afghanistan.
Fox said after talks in Italy on Wednesday that the situation was “not that different from what’s happening in Afghanistan, where we’ve decided that training up security forces so that the Afghans themselves can look after their security is the best way forward.”
Some British lawmakers have demanded Parliament be recalled from an Easter vacation to discuss the evolving mission, while an editorial in France’s left-leaning Le Monde daily said on Thursday that French involvement in Libya also “merits debate.”
“Voices are being raised on the other side of the English Channel against this ‘mission creep’ and reminding that the U.S. intervention in Vietnam half a century ago also began with the sending of military advisers,” Le Monde said.
During a visit to Slovenia, Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov also raised concerns about NATO’s mission evolving into a ground campaign.
“We find the current events in Libya very alarming,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency. “The latest events inside and around that country cannot make us happy. They spell obvious involvement in the conflict on the ground. This is fraught with unpredictable consequences.”
In Tripoli, Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters that foreign troops would be violently opposed if they appeared in major cities.
“If NATO comes to Misrata, or any Libyan city, we will unleash hell upon NATO. We will be a ball of fire. Libya will become one man, one woman, fighting for freedom. We will make it 10 times as bad as Iraq,” Ibrahim said.
British military spokesman Maj. Gen. John Lorimer said NATO jets had fired on targets in both Misrata and Tripoli during sorties flown on Wednesday.
“Given the grievous situation in Misrata, NATO has focused much of its air effort in this area, attacking numerous regime targets that were threatening the civilian population,” Lorimer said.
Cameron said that in telephone talks late Wednesday he had briefed President Barack Obama, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheik Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani on the role of the military advisers.
He also raised the prospect Thursday of a new round of international sanctions, including measures to specifically target Gadhafi’s ability to generate revenue from oil sales.
“We need to step up the political pressure and the sanctions pressure, including on the oil money that Gadhafi is still getting,” Cameron said.
Diplomats at the U.N. and European Union are tentatively discussing how to restrict the flow of money from oil sales to the Tripoli regime.
Separately, in Prague, the Czech Republic’s defense minister Alexandr Vondra said his country could not contribute more to NATO’s military mission over Libya — despite the appeal from allies for extra help.
So far, only six of the NATO’s 28 members nations are involved directly in the airstrikes.
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