Washington, Mar 23 (ANI): US President Barack Obama has said that the ongoing joint military operation in Libya could continue for a long period of time, insisting that America would continue to protect civilians against the Gaddafi regime but "will not lead."
"As long as Qadhafi remains in power - unless he changes his approach provides the Libyan people the opportunity to express themselves freely and there are significant reforms by the Libyan government, and he steps down - there's still going to be a potential threat to the Libyan people," Politico quoted Obama, as saying.
"We will continue to support the efforts to protect the Libyan people, but we will not be in the lead," he added.
The president also said that the primary responsibility for air patrols over Libya would shift from the Pentagon to coalition partners, under a NATO command arrangement that is still being drafted, adding that agreement would limit U.S. forces to play a supportive role in the operation.
"When this transition takes place, it is not going to be our planes that are maintaining the no-fly zone. It is not going to be our ships that are necessarily involved in enforcing the arms embargo. That's precisely what the other coalition partners are going to do," Obama said.
Since the military campaign began on Saturday, White House officials have declared that the Libyan leader's ouster is not the goal of the coalition backing the no-fly zone, but Obama appeared to suggest in his recent interview that the joint campaign could result in Qadhafi's departure.
"Qadhafi may try to hunker down and wait it out even in the face of a no fly zone even through his forces have been degraded, but keep in mind that we don't just have military tools at our disposal in terms of accomplishing Qadhafi's leaving. We've put in place strong international sanctions. We've frozen his assets," he warned. (ANI)
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