Libya opposition to meet with Clinton in Paris today
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will continue on to Egypt and Tunisia in her first trip to address the Arab revolutions. But the window for foreign assistance to Libya is quickly closing.
Libyan university students chant anti-Qaddafi slogans during a demonstration at the University of Qar Younis, in Benghazi, Libya Sunday, March 13. Hundreds of students took to the streets, protesting what they called "The Libyan leader's war crimes" demanding the international community impose a no-fly zone over Libya.
Nasser Nasser/AP
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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to meet with Libyan rebel leaders in Paris today in her first overseas trip to address Arab world revolutions since the ousting of former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Her visit comes as the Obama administration shows wariness about offering support to Libyan rebels and Col. Muammar Qaddafi's forces make surprising gains.
In Paris, Clinton will meet with Libyan opposition figures and meet several European counterparts to discuss military intervention in Libya, the Associated Press reports. France has already recognized the Libyan opposition interim council and, together with Britain, is drafting a no-fly zone resolution to put forward at the United Nations Security Council. But the US has been more reticent to throw its full support behind the rebels.
AP notes that the US regard for rebels “may well depend” on Clinton’s meetings today, since “the [rebel] council's composition and aims largely remain a mystery to American officials.”
Clinton is due to visit Tunisia and Egypt after Paris to express support for the ousters of autocratic governments there. "We have an enormous stake in ensuring that Egypt and Tunisia provide models for the kind of democracy that we want to see," Clinton told lawmakers last week, warning them about Iran's attempts to gain influence across the region, according to the Agence France-Presse.
Even though the Arab League offered a strongly-worded statement of support this weekend for an internationally backed no-fly zone over Libya, saying that the Libyan government had "lost its sovereignty," Obama on Sunday showed hesitation in committing the US to military action in Libya.
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