US President Barack Obama said on Monday the international community
should have done more to avoid a leadership vacuum in Libya, which has
been in disarray since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi four years ago.
Obama
told the United Nations General Assembly the international community
must work harder in future to ensure states do not implode.
The
rapid descent of Libya into violent chaos was one of the most dramatic
events in the "Arab Spring", the abrupt collapse of long-standing
autocratic governments in a number of Arab countries in the face of
popular protests.
"Even as we helped the Libyan people bring an
end to the reign of a tyrant, our coalition could have and should have
done more to fill a vacuum left behind," Obama said.
Rare acknowledgement of mistakes
His
rare acknowledgement of mistakes in Libya's transition came as the
United Nations tries to
negotiate an end to fighting between two rival
governments and their armed backers which has pushed the country to the
brink of collapse.
The UN General Assembly on Monday was dominated
by discussion of the turmoil in Syria, which erupted after an uprising
against President Bashar Assad. The United States and Russia have traded
accusations about responsibility for the violence.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin blamed the chaos in the region, including in
Libya, on the sudden removal of the old leaders, and said this was
creating many recruits for the Islamic State militant group.
"It
is now obvious that the power vacuum created in some countries of the
Middle East and North Africa led to emergence of anarchy areas. Those
immediately started to be filled with extremists and terrorists," Putin
told the assembly.
Driving is recruitment
"Tens
of thousands of militants are fighting under the banners of the
so-called 'Islamic State'," Putin said, saying US actions were behind
the failure of many countries, including Libya and Iraq.
Many
recruits came from Libya, Putin said, "a country whose statehood was
destroyed as a result of a gross violation" of a UN Security Council
resolution under which the Nato action was carried out.
The United
States led air strikes against Gaddafi's forces in 2011 and then handed
operations over to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) to
enforce a no-fly zone.
Russia accused the United States and its
European allies of tricking fellow Security Council members and using a
mandate to protect civilians as a cover for providing support to Libyan
rebels and ousting Gaddafi, who was subsequently killed.
Obama
told the assembly: "We will help any legitimate Libyan government as it
works to bring the country together, but we also have to recognizes that
we must work more effectively in the future as an international
community to build capacity for states that are in distress before they
collapse."
Powerful armed faction
Libya has
fragmented into two loose rival alliances of former rebels who once
fought Gaddafi together but turned against each other in a battle for
control.
Since last year, Tripoli has been controlled by Libya
Dawn, an alliance of Islamist-leaning former militias and a powerful
armed faction from the city of Misrata that set up a self-declared
government and parliament in the capital.
The internationally
recognised government and elected parliament has worked out of the east
of the country since its armed allies were driven out of the capital,
which is in the northwest. It is backed by a former Gaddafi ally,
General Khalifa Haftar, and a loose formation of other armed groups.
Hard-liners
from both sides have resisted peace talks, hoping they can gain more
from conflict. A deal proposed by the United Nations calls for a
one-year united national government, with the current elected parliament
as the legislature and another chamber as a consultative body.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Obama admits mistakes in Libya, says West should have done more
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