(Washington Post) - The United States and its European allies tightened their noose around Libya's besieged government Monday, positioning military assets for possible action in the Mediterranean as they launched humanitarian efforts to assist refugees and rebel forces that have seized the eastern part of the country.
Britain and the European Union announced new sanctions against Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, his family and his government. The U.S. Treasury announced that it has frozen $30 billion worth of Libyan assets in this country under an executive order President Obama issued Friday, the most ever blocked under such a program.
On the ground, rebels and forces loyal to Gaddafi appeared at least temporarily to be at a standoff, with neither side taking more territory. Gaddafi's air force bombed weapons depots, apparently to prevent the rebels from gaining access to them.
In Geneva, U.S. and European leaders focused on sending aid to rebels and refugees. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that $10 million in relief funds have been set aside by the U.S. Agency for International Development, and two teams of experts are being dispatched immediately to Libya's borders to assess the refugee crisis and organize the delivery of aid.
Although the administration has repeatedly demanded legal accountability for Gaddafi, Clinton hinted that the United States might be willing to accept a deal in which the Libyan leader would voluntarily agree to exile in a third country. She raised the possibility at a news conference at which she was asked whether Gaddafi might be permitted to seek refuge with Zimbabwe's leader, Robert Mugabe.
Although Clinton and several European leaders said imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya was under active consideration, other senior U.S. and European officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, emphasized that there had not yet been any significant political discussions of such action. It would be unlikely, they said, unless Gaddafi turned his air force directly against the Libyan people.
Other than the bombing of arms depots, "I don't think we've seen . . . indications they're bombing people," the senior administration official said. But reports on the ground "are disturbing enough to merit contingency planning, and the nature of the threats does indicate a potential for escalation," the official said. "We want to have options in place."
For the moment, the United States and its European allies are counting on the harsh financial and travel restrictions in place, along with the threat of international human rights prosecution, to prompt Libyan military and government officials still loyal to Gaddafi to reconsider their position.
Movement of two aircraft carriers that are in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf area was within the "range of possibilities," the Pentagon official said, but still under discussion. This official and others said that U.S. and NATO forces had sufficient resources in Italy and elsewhere in the Mediterranean to take a number of actions if necessary.
A U.S. destroyer passed through the Suez Canal on Sunday and took up position in the southwestern Mediterranean, another U.S. military official said. An amphibious assault ship, the USS Kearsarge, with helicopters aboard, was in the Red Sea and headed toward the canal. The USS Ponce, another amphibious assault vessel, was also moving toward the area, the official said.
"What we're trying to do is leverage all the different contacts and channels that we can," the official said. "This is a new set of actors. We're exploring not just the people we have telephone numbers for, but the business community that has experience working in eastern Libya and other nongovernmental organizations who have people on the ground" in an effort to "get a better ground truth."
Analysis: "Gaddafi is under the international microscope at the moment. As long as he sticks to aerial bombings of weapons caches and other rebel resources, Libya will remain free from foreign intervention. If the Colonel decides to direct air strikes towards the Libyan people, expect the game to change in North Africa. The international community will be under great pressure to protect Libyans if this should happen."
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