Press Release: 3 April 20011

Foreign Secretary discusses Libya and Cote d’Ivoire

Foreign Secretary William Hague today discussed the latest developments in Libya and
Cote d’Ivoire on the Andrew Marr Show.

On Libya he made clear there will be no ground invasion of the country. He said:

"We’re sticking very closely here to the United Nations resolution… which makes very
clear there must be no foreign occupation of any part of Libya and we will stick to that.
There have already been circumstances in which we’ve sent small special forces in to
Libya. We rescued people from the desert a few weeks ago as you will remember
through doing that. So circumstances can arise where limit, such limited operations take
place, but there is going to be no large scale ground force placed in Libya by the United
Kingdom."

He also reiterated that there had been no decision to arm rebels in Libya noting:

"We have taken no decision to arm the rebels, the opposition, the pro democracy
people, whatever one wants to call them and I’m not aware of any of our allies taking
the decision to do that. What we are engaged in is protecting the civilian population in
Libya, which we have done with a lot of success... when people look at what we’re
doing in Libya they do have to look at what would be happening if we didn’t do what
we’d done over the last few weeks and it would have been a catastrophic situation."

The Foreign Secretary confirmed that he had spoken to Musa Kusa since his
resignation and added that Musa Kusa was not under arrest and had arrived in the UK
of his own free. He said:

"I have spoken to him briefly, and I spoke to him regularly when he was in Tripoli so it
would be very odd if I didn’t speak to him now. I welcomed the fact that he had left the
Gaddafi regime. I said I thought that was the right thing to do. I asked him to have
discussions with my officials, which is indeed what he is now doing."

"I formed the view over quite a few conversations with him when he was still in place as
Libyan Foreign Minister that he was very distressed by what was happening in Libya,
that he wanted to see a peaceful solution, that he was very deeply concerned about
what’s happening to the people of Libya. And I think when somebody like that says they
want to get out then it would be quite wrong to say no you’ve got to stay there."

He also reiterated that Musa Kusa would not be offered immunity from prosecution and
set out why it was a good thing that Musa Kusa had chosen to come to the UK. He said
that he intended to give a statement to Parliament tomorrow and said:
“The Prime Minister and I have made clear there’s no immunity from prosecution, there
will be no immunity. He hasn’t asked for that. There isn’t a deal. I know there were
reports in one or two papers today of a deal. There is no deal. All he asked for was to be
able to come here. He chose to come to the United Kingdom of his own free will. It is a
good thing that he has left this despotic murderous regime because it weakens that
regime. It’s a good thing we’re able to discuss with him the situation in, in Libya and the
Middle East with of course all his experience of it. And it is a good thing, where the, the
Crown Office in Scotland wish to talk to him about what’s happened in the past, such as
at Lockerbie, well then my officials are discussing with the Crown Office tomorrow how
to go about that."

Finally on Libya the Foreign Secretary emphasised that the International Community
supported Libya’s territorial integrity. He said:

"The whole international community supports the territorial integrity of Libya and it’s very
much the desire of the opposition in Libya to have a united country. I think it’s very
much the desire of most people in the regime actually from talking to Musa Kusa in the
past, so that’s not where people in Libya want to go. And let’s be clear that if the Libyan
regime tries to hang on in this situation they are internationally isolated, they can’t sell
any oil, there is no way forward for them, there is no future for Libya on that basis. And
so I think even the prospect of a kind of stalemate that you’re talking about could
encourage people in Tripoli to think well Colonel Gaddafi has now got to go."

On Cote d’Ivoire the Foreign Secretary also made clear that the International
Community has been working to support African nations in ending the violence and
resolving the current crisis. He said:

"We’ve been working in the European Union and the United Nations to tighten the
sanctions on Mr Gbagbo, the defeated President who refuses to leave, which is what,
what has caused this violence. So we are involved in what is happening in Cote
d’Ivoire."

"Here the African Union have taken a lead and the West African states in particular have
taken a lead and they want to be in lead. It’s a different case from Libya where the Arab
league called on the world, called on the United Nations to become involved and to
save civilians from being attacked by the Gaddafi regime. In Cote d’Ivoire it’s very much
the mood of the African nations that they should be in the lead. But as in Libya we call
on people to desist from crimes and abuses, it’s important the International Criminal
Court is able to examine in the future what has happened in Cote d’Ivoire and we renew
our call for Gbagbo to get out which would stop this violence."

ENDS