Weapons drop

29 June 2011 Last updated at 16:57 GMT By Jonathan Marcus BBC Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent The rebels in western Libya have been making advances in recent days The French military are presenting their decision to parachute in weaponry to the Libyan rebels in the western Nafusa mountains as a response to a specific local situation.

Civilians, they say, were encircled by government forces who refused to allow the opening up of an aid corridor to reach them.

A French military spokesman says weapons including assault rifles, machine guns and rocket launchers were air-dropped earlier this month.

A report in today's Le Figaro newspaper suggests that Milan anti-tank missiles may also have been included.

Arming the rebels is of course controversial, not least because in February, UN Security Council resolution 1970 established an arms embargo that appeared to apply to all sides in Libya. It talked about banning sales to the Libyan nation - the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

However there were those, not least the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who argued that the subsequent UN resolution 1973 - the one that allowed all necessary means to be used to protect Libyan civilians - actually amended or overrode the earlier UN decision.

Legal differences

Speaking in London in late March, she said that "there could be a legitimate transfer of arms if a country should choose to do that".

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Despite its efforts to frame its own arms supplies in terms of protecting civilians, it looks as though the French government has made a strategic decision ”

End Quote But the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, subsequently made it clear that Washington had not yet made such a decision.

British Prime Minister David Cameron took a similar position, noting that "the arms embargo applies to the whole territory of Libya, but at the same time UN Security Council resolution 1973 allows all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas."

Mr Cameron told the British parliament: "Our view is that this would not necessarily rule out the provision of assistance to those protecting civilians in certain circumstances."

That is not the interpretation many international legal experts put on Security Council resolution 1973. Indeed, it actually calls on governments "to ensure strict implementation of the arms embargo" established by resolution 1970. As is often the case, different experts differ on the exact legal interpretation.

Britain has been supplying the rebels with non-lethal assistance - things like uniforms, rations and radios. There has been a small British military team in Bengazi alongside the rebel headquarters, advising on logistics and other organisational matters.

Capable fighters

Nonetheless, weapons have been reaching the Libyan rebels in the east of the country, funded by Qatar and other Gulf States.

The article in Le Figaro suggests that some of these have also been flown in, to improvised airstrips in the west.

Despite its efforts to frame its own arms supplies in terms of protecting civilians, it looks as though the French government, whose aircraft fired the first shots in the Western-led intervention over Libya, has made a strategic decision.

The war is dragging on. Unease in some Nato countries is growing. Libyan rebels in the east of the country do not have the military means to march on the capital, Tripoli.

But the largely Berber forces in the Nafusa Mountains in western Libya have proved capable fighters. They have been advancing significantly in recent days.

They are much closer to the Libyan capital and thus better able to bring direct pressure on the Gaddafi regime.

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France gave Libyan rebels weapons

29 June 2011 Last updated at 15:37 GMT Libyan rebels have been making military gains in the west of the country France has air-dropped weapons to rebels fighting Col Muammar Gaddafi's troops in Western Libya, the French military has confirmed.

Light arms and ammunition were sent to Berber tribal fighters in the Nafusa mountains in early June, it said.

Earlier, a report in Le Figaro newspaper said the arms included rocket launchers and anti-tank missiles.

France, a leading force in the Nato operation in Libya, did not inform its allies about the move, Le Figaro said.

"We began by dropping humanitarian aid: food, water and medical supplies," said Col Thierry Burkhard, spokesman for the French general staff.

"During the operation, the situation for the civilians on the ground worsened. We dropped arms and means of self-defence, mainly ammunition," he told AFP news agency.

He said the arms were "light infantry weapons of the rifle type", dropped over a period of several days "so that civilians would not be massacred".

UN resolutions

The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says the statement is likely to bring further criticism from the likes of Russia and China, who believe Nato and its allies have already gone beyond the remit of UN resolution 1973, which authorised international military action in Libya.

The US has argued that resolution 1973 allows countries to provide arms to rebels despite an earlier resolution - 1970 - that imposed an arms embargo on the whole of Libya.

Resolution 1973 authorises "all necessary measures" to protect civilians, "notwithstanding" the arms embargo in resolution 1970.

France played a prominent role in pushing for military intervention in Libya, and French and British planes have led the air strikes over the country that began in late March.

Qatar, which has supported the Nato-led operation in Libya, has been supplying arms to rebels mainly through their eastern stronghold in the city of Benghazi.

France, the UK and Italy announced in April that they were sending military advisers to Benghazi.

'Light tanks'

The decision to drop arms to the Libyan rebels was reportedly taken following a meeting in mid-April between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Chief of Staff of the Libyan rebels, Gen Abdelfatah Younis.

France is said to have been concerned at the stalemate in a conflict between the rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces that started in February.

The report in Le Figaro suggested that 40 tonnes of weapons were sent to western Libya, including "a few light tanks" that were smuggled in across the Tunisian border.

The newspaper also reported that it had seen a confidential defence map showing two makeshift airstrips in rebel-held towns, built to receive small aircraft from the Gulf that can move French arms closer to the front.

The rebels have recently been edging forward in Libya's north-west, and are hoping to push on to Tripoli from the frontline, currently on the other side of the Nafusa mountains and about 65km (40 miles) from the capital.

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