Libya’s interim leader urged NATO on Wednesday to maintain its involvement in the country until the end of the year, though the Western military alliance that helped topple Muammar Gaddafi is keen to wind up its formal mission within days. With Gaddafi’s son and heir-apparent believed still at large and seeking to flee following his father’s killing last week, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC), said he wanted NATO help in stopping Gaddafi loyalists escaping justice. But at the Brussels headquarters of the alliance, whose air strikes and intelligence backed the motley rebel forces for eight months at substantial financial cost, NATO officials recalled that their UN mandate was to protect civilians, not target individuals.
A meeting of NATO ambassadors, postponed from Wednesday to Friday to allow for further discussion with the NTC and United Nations, was still due to endorse a preliminary decision to halt the Libya mission on Oct. 31, a spokeswoman for the bloc said. Speaking in Qatar, the most active Arab backer of the Western move against Gaddafi, Abdel Jalil told reporters: “We look forward to NATO continuing its operations until the end of the year.” He added: “We seek technical and logistics help from neighbouring and friendly countries.”
