Malta had no contact with Nato and was not cooperating with the military organisation, the Prime Minister insisted yesterday soon after emerging from a Cabinet meeting in Castille.
Lawrence Gonzi said “at no time would Malta be used as a military base” and insisted anybody who implied a link between Malta and Nato was doing the country “a disservice”.
Communication between the air control tower in Luqa and a Nato surveillance aircraft on Saturday gave rise to such talk.
The Nato airborne radar plane patrolling the skies off Malta requested information from Malta Air Traffic Services on a Libyan civilian aircraft flying from Amman in Jordan to Mitiga airport in Tripoli. This plane is believed to be one of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s private jets. The Malta control tower obliged by giving the Nato aircraft the flight level and flight path of the Libyan plane.
The government, however, denied such communication amounted to cooperation with Nato when asked about the matter.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said any information given by air traffic control to requests by aircraft flying through the Maltese airspace was in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organisation standards and “flexible use of airspace procedures as endorsed by Eurocontrol and EU regulations”.
“The government is not cooperating with Nato and has not been requested to do so. Speculation hinders Malta in fulfilling its central coordination role in the humanitarian effort under way,” the spokesman said.
According to international media reports, several Nato Awacs have been flying around Libya in what international news network Al Jazeera described as a build-up for the imposition of a no-fly zone on Libya.
The government last night flatly denied a report by Al Jazeera that “much of the military equipment needed to enforce a no-fly zone is already based” on the island. It categorically denied there was any veracity in the report and said it was completely unfounded.
Malta is not a Nato member and the Constitution prohibits the country’s participation in any military alliance.
The government’s denial came on the same day Nato general secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the military organisation had “no intention to intervene in Libya” despite intensive “prudent planning” for “any eventuality”. He stressed that action would require a UN Security Council mandate.
Dr Gonzi also denied any knowledge of the botched mission by UK diplomats and special forces commandos to enter eastern Libya, answering with a scant “no” when asked about the matter just before departing in his car.
The diplomatic team and SAS soldiers were whisked away from Benghazi on board the Royal Navy ship HMS Cumberland after being detained for two days by the rebels.
The Cumberland docked in Malta yesterday afternoon with 29 civilian evacuees on board.
Dr Gonzi reiterated Malta’s role was that to assist evacuation efforts of other countries, companies and individuals apart from supplying humanitarian aid to the Libyan people.
He said the government was financing six Air Malta flights to help ease the situation on the Tunisia-Libya border, which is crowded with evacuees. The first of these flights departed yesterday.
Air Malta will be flying to the Tunisian airport of Djerba from where it will take on board Ghanaian nationals and transport them to Accra in Ghana.
Dr Gonzi said Malta was backing the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organisations in delivering aid to refugees from the Libyan crisis.