Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil has welcomed the UN’s imposition of a no-fly zone in Libya and said Malta should offer its support.
“Malta is duty bound to respect the UNSC resolution and our constitutional provisions on neutrality do not prevent us from doing so. That includes allowing military planes to use our airspace as may be necessary for the implementation of the resolution,” he said, when contacted by timesofmalta.com.
He said Malta should keep “a sense of proportion and perspective” regarding lending use of military facilities.
“We have no military assets to use and we should not pretend to have any military muscle because we do not. But we could be asked to offer our facilities to support military assets that are used in the implementation of the UN resolution in view of our ideal geographic situation.”
“If this becomes necessary, we should say yes,” he said.
He added that the Maltese government had already taken a very clear position in favour of the Libyan people and against the Gaddafi regime.
“This required significant political courage considering our size and traditional ties with Libya. Moreover, Malta has already played an admirable role on the humanitarian front. So both legally and morally Malta has done the right thing. We should continue doing the right thing.”
He said the no-fly zone came late, “but it may have come just in time”.
“For starters, the resolution sends a message to the regime that its time is really up because this time, the warning is backed up by military assets. Secondly, it sends a message of hope to the protesters and gives them a new lease of life that they may live to see their dream come true. For these two reasons alone, the resolution is to be welcomed and will have a huge impact even before it is actually implemented.”
Although Muammar Gaddafi’s ground forces would still be able to attack, he says the resolution “goes beyond the no-fly-zone and also includes the power ‘to take all necessary measures... to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi’.”
“This means that military efforts can also be deployed to stop Gaddafi’s troops,” Dr Busuttil points out.
He said the resolution should not go any further for the time being.
“The resolution is very far-reaching and also includes a reference to ‘all necessary measures’ short of a military intervention. But there’s a lot you can do short of a military intervention and the international community is now legally empowered to do it.”