Defence secretary Liam Fox says Gaddafi will fall from power only when members of inner circle decide
Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 31 July 2011 18.45 BST
Article history
Defence secretary Liam Fox said Muammar Gaddafi will fall from power only when members of his inner circle decide the Libyan leader is a 'busted flush'. Photograph: David Jones/PA
Liam Fox, the defence secretary, said today that Muammar Gaddafi will fall from power only when members of his inner circle decide the Libyan leader is a "busted flush".
In a sign of how Britain believes that rebel forces will play only a limited role in deciding the future of Libya, the defence secretary said their progress had been slow.
Speaking on Radio 4's The World This Weekend, as he prepared to fly to Washington for talks with his US counterpart Leon Panetta, Fox said: "The key for the Libyan resolution will be whether or not the close circle around colonel Gaddafi realise there's no point in investing in him: he's a busted flush he will sooner or later have to leave power. When the penny drops with them that that's inevitable, then you're likely to see the sort of change, the political momentum, that we've been looking for."
The defence secretary said that rebel forces were constrained. "They have always had limited capacity on the ground. They're being assisted in terms of communications, in terms of logistics, they may be getting some equipment from elsewhere but they will still have a very limited ground potential."
Fox said the rebels were making slow progress. "There continues to be progress. If you look at where the opposition forces have made progress – yes, it has been slow, but we've prevented the wholesale slaughter of the population. If other countries believe there is a need for a ground force – I don't think the chances of securing a resolution are even remotely possible."
The defence secretary declined to be drawn on which group may been responsible for the assassination of Gaddafi's former interior minister, General Abdel Fatah Younis, who defected to become the rebels' military leader. "It's not yet clear who carried out the killing and there are claims and counter-claims it will be at least several days until we know exactly what the situation was. There has always been a mixture of people who make up the opposition forces in Libya – hardly surprising given the history of the country and it would be for the Libyans themselves to sort out exactly how any power structure develops post-Gaddafi."
Sir Menzies Campbell, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the killing raised questions about the stability of the National Transitional Council and showed the need for a "wholesale" review of policy towards Libya.
He told Sky News: "The assassination has thrown into fairly sharp focus the whole question of the transitional national council. What kind of government if for example, it ever got to Tripoli. I also think that claims of success have always got to be taken with a certain amount of scepticism because it's not about just taking ground temporarily its taking it permanently. I've been saying I think we should take this period for a wholesale examination of policy.
"I supported the military action – I continue to support the British government's involvement but I think we have to have a pretty clearer view about what the NTC would be like were they ever to get to Tripoli."
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