Arab League Requests UNSC to Impose No-Fly Zone

Juan Cole 03/13/2011

The Arab League has indeed called for the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya. It is also moving to recognize the provisional government in Benghazi, and has delisted Qaddafi’s government in Tripoli from the League.

This action is the most decisive the League has taken since it called for a rollback of Saddam Hussein’s occupation of Kuwait in 1990 and authorized League members to join the coalition of George H.W. Bush in pushing Iraq back out.

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, is rumored to be planning a run for president of Egypt in the elections scheduled for September; he led the charge on getting this resolution.

Although the Arab League has no real teeth, that its members have turned so decisively against Qaddafi does suggest that he may have difficulty surviving, in a world where he is diplomatically isolated both in Europe and in the Arab world.

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page