LONDON/PARIS – Britain on Thursday hailed a “change in the position” of the United States on Libya and urged immediate action to stop Moamer Gaddafi’s forces, piling on pressure for a UN vote on a no-fly zone. “There has been a significant change in the position of the White House,” Alistair Burt, a British Foreign Office minister with special responsibility for the Middle East, told BBC radio. “We obviously appreciate that the United States does realise the urgency of the situation.” The situation in Libya “makes it imperative that something is done and something is done today,” he said.
Meanwhile, France scrambled Foreign Minister Alain Juppe to the UNSC in a bid to get a draft resolution authorising action in Libya passed, his ministry said. “Given the urgency that the Libyan population is faced with, notably in Benghazi, Alain Juppe has decided to go to New York to obtain, as quickly as possible, a vote on the resolution,” his ministry said in a statement. US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said that action might have to “go beyond a no-fly zone at this point, as the situation on the ground has evolved, and as a no-fly zone has inherent limitations in terms of protection of civilians at immediate risk.”
