‘NATO’s role vital in command, control of Libya’

As US prepares to hand over the command and control of the military operation in Libya in the next few days, the Obama Administration has said that NATO would have a very important role to play in this regard.

“There is an agreement that NATO is going to play a very important role in the command and control,” said Mr Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor, adding that the terms and timeline of the transition is still being discussed at NATO.

“The exact structure and relative participation of different countries is what they’re continuing to discuss, and they will do so, again, tomorrow.

But again, I think this is going to be a matter of days in which you see a movement towards a transition with regard to command and control,” he told White House correspondents travelling with the US President on their way back from Latin American to the US.

“You already see an increase in the extent to which the no-fly zone, the enforcement of the no-fly zone piece of the effort in Libya right now is being undertaken by allies and partners. You see, again, a number of allies stepping up with different contributions as well,” he said, adding that the US and its international partners are working through the command and control issue.

Referring to the reports coming from Libya, Mr Rhodes said in recent days Mr Gaddafi’s own forces that had been advancing at a very rapid pace across Libya, are no longer making those advances. They are no longer moving towards Benghazi and in fact are pulling back.

“You have similar instances around different parts of the country where, again, his forces are facing a challenge that they didn’t before, and it’s affecting their ability to harm the Libyan people,” he said.

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