As he prepared to co-host Doha conference William Hague insisted Gaddafi's regime have become 'pariahs in the world'
Hélène Mulholland and Ian Black
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 13 April 2011 10.15 BST
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Libya leader Muammar Gaddafi was described by William Hague a 'pariah in the world'. Photograph: Mohamed Messara/EPA
Further sanctions could be imposed on Libya at the Doha conference, foreign secretary William Hague signalled today as he insisted that Colonel Gaddafi's regime have become "pariahs in the world" and have no future in governing the country.
With no immediate prospect that the Libyan leader is preparing to surrender, Hague suggested sanctions could be ramped up to force Gaddafi out as he prepared to co-host the conference on Libya in the Qatari capital.
The UN, Arab League and EU will all be represented – as will France, Italy, Germany, Turkey and others – at a gathering billed as a follow-up by the "contact group" formed after the London conference on Libya last month.
Wednesday's conference is expected to be dominated by the rejection by the Libyan opposition of the African Union plan for a ceasefire and talks on a transition period with Gaddafi and his family staying in place – a position unacceptable to the opposition in Benghazi.
British officials said Hague will reiterate demands for Gaddafi to step down and allow the Libyan people to determine their own future in line with UN security council resolutions.
Hague told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that while it was impossible to say "which week" the conflict in Libya would come to an end because of the "very fast moving and unpredictable situation", it was "very clear" that the Gaddafi regime had to come to an end.
He said the Libyan regime were now "pariahs in the world" as a result of the tough sanctions already imposed.
Insisting that it was important not to underestimate what had been achieved as a result of military action, Hague said: "I think it is also clear that the Gaddafi regime has no future. The sanctions imposed at the United Nations, which we will discuss strengthening today, are among the toughest ever seen in the history of the United Nations. Large parts of their country are not under their control. They are pariahs in the world so there is no future for that regime. The question is when and how it unravels."
He cited the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa as proof of how influential sanctions could be, though these took decades to help bring about change.
On Libya, Hague said: "I think we can look to how it will end, it's more difficult to say when it will end. It will end at some stage with the departure of Gaddafi, with a political process in Libya that is a more inclusive process."
Hague defended the military operation of the past few weeks, which he said had saved "thousands of lives", but he said that Britain and France are now carrying "a lot of the burden" of the military operation, pointing to the scope for European and Arab nations to move aircraft from a defensive to a ground strike role against regime forces.
Hague also defended the decision to allow Libya's most high profile defector, foreign minister Moussa Koussa, to fly out of the UK on Tuesday to take part in the critical peace conference amid anger from Lockerbie campaigners and accusations of "betrayal" levelled at the British government Hague refuted claims made by a Conservative colleague that Britain had become a "transit lounge for war criminals", saying Koussa was free to move around while not under arrest.
"It is right if somebody wants to leave such a murderous regime, and talk to other people who want to bring that regime to an end, it is ethically right that they are able to do so. It's legally right to say you have no immunity at all."
Hague, who said he had only spoken to his former counterpart on the telephone since he arrived in the UK, said it was for the police and prosecutors to act if they believed they had cause to arrest him and prevent him from travelling. "We behave according to the law. The matter of arrests is for prosecuting authorities and police; that is not for ministers to decide," he said.
"He is not detained, he came here of his own volition. If he was under arrest, he wouldn't be allowed to leave."
Agenda items at the international conference include plans for humanitarian aid and stabilisation assistance, with the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the International Red Cross being tasked to deploy assessment missions in eastern Libya and rebel-controlled enclaves in the west such as Misrata, which is under siege by regime forces.
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