International

The SP has welcomed the passage of a resolution by the United Nations Security Council declaring a no-fly zone over Libya.

According to SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel, the resolution has had, in the short term, the desired effect. “The pressure that this resolution is exercising has without doubt contributed to the calling off of tonight’s declared assault on Benghazi ,” he says. “The resolution’s first goal, a cease-fire, has been brought closer.” Van Bommel also sees the resolution as being of major political significance. “The adoption of this resolution means that the permanent members of the Security Council have truly returned to the UN. After illegal actions in Kosovo and Iraq, this is of major importance. Another military action outside the UN’s authority might well have meant that the organisation was beyond retrieval. Cooperation between the Arab League and Western countries offers, in addition, a great deal of hope for the future.”

The SP believes that priority must now be given to finding a political solution in Libya. How such a solution should develop is in the first place up to the Libyan people. The chance that Colonel Gaddafi could have a role to play in this can in Van Bommel’s view, however, be ruled out. “Different governments have called his regime ‘illegitimate,” he points out, “and the Arab League also wants him out. Politically Gaddafi is completely isolated. The game’s up for him.”

The question of whether the Netherlands should make a military contribution to the enforcement of the no-fly zone can, in the SP’s view, only be answered if and when a concrete request is made. Such a request must be judged according to the potential effectiveness and the proportionality of any deployment of military violence.